


Learning to Love

by PyromaniacCreator



Series: Learning to Love [1]
Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Angst, Anxiety, Blood and Injury, Bonding, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Romance, First Kiss, Fluff, Getting to Know Each Other, Insecurity, Kissing, Mild Gore, Nicknames, Nightmares, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Panic Attacks, Pining, Reader is Demisexual, Self-Indulgent, Slow Burn, Threats of Violence, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Violence, Vomiting, reader has a nickname, reader is an animator, readers gender is not mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:47:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 24,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23147215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PyromaniacCreator/pseuds/PyromaniacCreator
Summary: You are an animator for the 2020 reboot of your childhood favorite show. One day you get an invitation in the mail to come to the old studio. Upon arriving there, adventures you'd never dreamed of began.
Relationships: "Bendy" | Ink Bendy/Reader, Bendy (Bendy and the Ink Machine)/Reader
Series: Learning to Love [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1667842
Comments: 14
Kudos: 33





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hello all! here we finally are, at the beginning of Learning to Love, the multi chapter Bendy x Reader fan fic!
> 
> hope you all enjoy this story!

You were awoken by the annoying sound of your alarm, taken away from the peaceful land of slumber and a wonderful dream you were having. You accidentally swiped on the snooze option on your phone, and internally cursed at your tired brain for making that mistake.  
Okay, 5 more minutes wouldn’t hurt. You let your eyes flutter shut.

Only to be awoken again five minutes later. This time you turned the alarm off. You flew the blanket over your shoulder, and sat up in your bed. It was 6:05 in the morning. Now, you weren’t a morning person. At all. Groggily, you got up and made your way out of the bedroom and in to the kitchen to get some well deserved breakfast.  
You poured yourself a bowl of your favorite cereal, and sat at the kitchen table, eating away at the cereal. Afterwards you took a quick shower to help you wake up better, and pulled on your signature clothing. A black t-shirt, some sweatpants and a white hoodie. You brushed your teeth, and your hair. 

You gave a glance at the clock. 6:45 AM. Oh shit. You had 15 minutes until you were supposed to clock in at work. Rushingly you grabbed your messenger bag, your keys and your phone and hurried off into the cold autumn morning. You ran all the way to your car, unlocked the doors and prayed to who knows what that your car would co-operate today. Luckily it did. You drove off into the distance, barely avoiding morning traffic. 

You parked your car, rushed out of it and into the building you called work. It was exactly 6:59 AM when you clocked in. You gasped for breath as you made your way towards your working space, which was a small desk at a corner of the building. You turned on the beast of a computer, flicking the monitor on as well and waiting for it start up.

It took a while for the computer to turn on but you were used to it. You had wondered why your boss wouldn’t just replace the old things already. Nevertheless, you were glad you didn’t have to bring your own laptop to work. That thing could barely run any animation software, not to mention handling editing software and rendering said videos.

Did I mention that you worked as an animator? It had been your childhood dream to work in the industry, you had started out with freelancer work until the bigger studios noticed your skills. You were hired to Joey Drew Studios some months ago, and you quite enjoyed the work. You got to draw and animate one of your childhoods favorite characters in the new and rebooted version of the show. Yes, you were in charge of animating the Devil Darling himself. It was the biggest load of work in the animation team as he made an appearance in every single episode, but you didn’t complain. He was easy - and fast - to draw, and you had memorized his every little detail to ease your work flow. 

The episode you were animating to air next was a cute one. Or at least you found it cute. In it, one of the main characters, William Scottson, would finally confess his feelings to the demon. The bunny demon was featured in a bunch of episodes, he was a part of the original animation series. He had been given more screen time in the reboot. 

You finally sat down at your computer, picking up the pen and began to draw on the screen in front of you. You got to work in peace for approximately 10 minutes before you were interrupted by one of your coworkers, or to be more precise, one of your best friends.  
‘’Hey Pitt, how far are you into the episode?’’ he asked. You didn’t turn around to look at him, but replied either way.  
‘’I’m halfway done coloring my part, Jordan.’’ you replied, focus on the drawing screen tablet. ‘’Haven’t I told you to stop calling me Pitt?’’ you added. Jordan scoffed.  
‘’What’s got’cha so cranky today?’’ he asked. You rolled your eyes.  
‘’Maybe it’s because a certain someone is disturbing my work flow and calling me by a nickname I’ve told him to stop using.’’ you replied, dryly.  
‘’Yeah, yeah, I getc’cha. No social contact whatsoever until lunch break.’’ he said.  
You didn’t pay him any more attention, focusing on coloring in your work instead. You had a tight schedule and would need to get your part turned in by the end of the month. And it was already the 19th of September. You were in a hurry to finish and didn’t appreciate anyone bothering you while you were in the zone.  
Eventually Jordan got the hint and wandered back to his working space, letting you have the peace and quiet you needed to work efficiently. 

You didn’t rip your attention from the screen until around noon, just in time for lunch. Getting up, you stretched your back and it let out a loud pop noise. You let out a groan. This definitely wasn’t the best work ethic, working so hard you forgot to take breaks and when you took them, they were short and simple. A quick visit to the bathroom, or to grab some fresh air. Right now though, you needed to eat. Your stomach made that very clear by growling loudly as you entered the kitchen area. You popped your meal into the microwave, setting the timer to two minutes. The two minutes went by efficiently slow. It was frustrating. You just wanted to get back to coloring. Finally the microwave let out a ‘ding’ sound and you propped the door open, grabbing your lunch and settling to the kitchen table.  
It wasn’t long until Jordan made his way to the kitchen as well. Great, you thought. He was probably gonna pester you about your work or love life. Your guess was on the latter.

Jordan had been trying to hook you up with almost every one of his friends. It wasn’t until you came out as demisexual that he stopped. Though he would occasionally ask you if you had befriended anyone who you would see yourself dating in the future. You had chugged a show at him for asking that. It wasn’t up to you to decide who’d you fall for. If you even would fall for anyone. You were quite content living on your own, and being alone. You really didn’t want anyone to look after, you didn’t yearn for someone to love and you definitely didn’t yearn for a roommate. 

‘’Hey Pitt.’’ Jordan started. You groaned at the nickname once more. ‘’So anything interesting happen lately?’’ he asked, sitting on the other side of the table. You shook your head.  
‘’You know you’d be the first one to know if anything did happen.’’ you replied, before shoving another forkful of food into your mouth.  
‘’As it should be. Best friends have no secrets.’’ Jordan said. You disagreed with him about that. You had your secrets that he didn’t know about, and would never get to know about either.  
‘’How about you, got any juicy details about your date?’’ you asked, eager to know how his date had gone.  
‘’Ohhhh boy, wait ‘til you hear all about it.’’ Jordan said, rolling his eyes. He told you everything in such detail. How his date expected for him to pay for everything, how they’d tried to kiss him out of the blue and how they expected to get a call or text the same day. You knew Jordan wasn’t the type to get attached or fall in love easily. He required multiple dates before he would even consider kissing.  
‘’Sounds like someone was desperate.’’ you pointed out. Jordan sighed. ‘’Yeahhhh. Very desperate.’’ he said. By now, you had finished your lunch and were chatting with Jordan. You glanced at the clock on the wall, right above the doorway. 12:35 PM. Looks like you’d taken a longer break than you intended. You got up, discarding of the plastic utensils and plate before heading out of the kitchen.  
‘’Back to work?’’ Jordan piped up, following you.  
‘’Yup. I have a set amount of frames I need to get done today. And I am nowhere near that number.’’ you replied, reaching your work station. You sat down, put on the protective glove and picked up the pen.  
‘’You push yourself too hard. You still got a lot of time to color. And you’re a fast artist so I highly doubt you’ll miss the deadline.’’ Jordan said.  
‘’Yeah, yeah I know Jordan. But better to get it done as soon as possible rather than drag it out until the final day.’’ you replied, logging back to your computer. You pulled open the animation software, and reeling back to the beginning of the scene you were coloring. You hit play and let the scene run through. It was looking good, if you did think so yourself. 

Jordan excused himself back to work as well, since his deadline was earlier than yours and he sure as heck wasn’t a speedy art demon like you. You decided you wanted to listen to some music, so you picked up your bag and dug through for your headphones.  
You logged in to YouTube, and browsed your playlists. You decided to listen to the playlist with Set It Off, and multiple others of your favorite bands. 

It wasn’t until around 4 PM that you finally got the whole scene colored. And your working hours were from 7 AM to 4 PM, so it was almost time to clock out and head home. You saved your progress, logged out of every site you were logged in on and shut down the computer. You made your way out of the small room, and down the hallway. You stopped at Jordan’s work desk to see how he was doing.  
He was in charge of coloring in the backgrounds. You noticed he hadn’t gotten through even one third of the background and his deadline was in a week. A feeling of dread swallowed you. Was he gonna make it in time?  
‘’You know I can tell you’re right there, Pitt.’’ Jordan said, turning his attention to you.  
‘’Uh huh.’’ you replied. You walked in to the small room and sat on the empty chair next to Jordan’s desk.  
‘’So, you gonna hit that deadline?’’ you asked. Jordan sighed.  
‘’It’s gonna be tough, but I’ll be working over hours to catch up.’’ he replied, focusing on painting the background.  
‘’That’s not healthy.’’ you pointed out. He looked at you.  
‘’Just like you not taking proper breaks isn’t healthy either.’’ he said. You rolled your eyes.  
‘’I don’t need breaks.’’ you said.  
‘’And I can work over hours.’’ Jordan noted. You rolled your eyes again.  
‘’Anyways, I’m heading home.’’ you said and got up. You made it to the doorway, before you turned around and added ‘’don’t stay up all night’’. Jordan just replied with ‘I won’t.’’ 

You clocked out, flung the exit door open and made your way to your car. Now it decided to have trouble starting up and you cursed at it. You’d really need to either get it fixed or get a new car. It took you a solid 30 minutes to get it to start up, and then you were speeding off and out to the highway.  
You stopped at a grocery store on your way home to get lunch supplies and some snacks.  
Upon arriving home, you took another shower and finally plopped down on your laptop desk, turning the machine on. You decided you were gonna draw some of your fan characters interacting with canon characters, but also wanted to practice some backgrounds as those were one of your weaker spots.  
You drew for what seemed like hours and when you looked at the clock at the corner of your laptops screen, you were filled with shock. It was already 11 PM. You should have been in bed by 9. Great. Waking up tomorrow would be a chore and a half.  
You had some supper before brushing your teeth and heading to bed. Your massive collection of plushies was sitting at the windowsill. You spared a look at them, before picking out one of your favorites to sleep with tonight.  
It was your very old, like super old, and worn out Bendy plush. You’d had it since you were 10 and it had been your comfort ever since. It had helped you through many nightmares and held a lot of your tears in its soft plush body. It was no lie, you picked that one to sleep with every night.  
He really was your favorite character from the show from the old days, but you loved the modern version as well. You had been thinking about getting the new merch for the show, but felt bad about possibly replacing a childhood memory. 

You still wondered how you, out of all the people who went to the interviews, were picked out to animate him. It was like a dream come true, and you had to ask someone to pinch you when they announced the animators and their characters. 

While reminiscing those days, you fell to the land of slumber. Your dreams were pleasant once more, as you dreamed about him. He was quite an obsession to you by this point, and anyone who’d find out about it, would probably judge you or laugh at your childish obsession with a cartoon demon.  
The dream sure was pleasant, but also a bit weird. Waking up from it the next morning left you wondering how your brain made shit like that up. Now of course you loved him, you loved him a lot, but to date him? That was insane. He was a cartoon character for fucks sake and everyone knew cartoons couldn’t come to life. That only happened in movies and your messed up dreams. 

You wandered out of your bed, and in to the bathroom to rinse your face. You looked at yourself in the mirror and noticed you were flushed red. Oh. Great. The dream had left you flustered. Shaking your head, you exited the bathroom and went to the kitchen for some breakfast. It was only 5:45 AM at that moment so you decide to invest well into your breakfast and made eggs, bacon and toast for yourself.  
Shortly after breakfast you brushed your teeth, and off to work you were going the next moment. 

Upon arriving to work, at 6:50 AM, you clocked in and mde your way to your desk again. On your way there, you stopped at Jordan’s desk. He was sitting there, deep in thought, painting the background.  
‘’Morning Jordan.’’ you said.  
‘’Morning Pitt.’’ he replied, turning his attention to you. He grinned when he saw you.  
‘’What?’’ you asked.  
‘’You almost as red as a fire truck. What happened? Tell me everything.’’’ he said, spinning around in his chair. You looked at him, in disbelief and shock.  
‘’N-nothing. I just had a fluffy dream that left me flustered.’’ you replied, not mentioning who it was about.  
‘’Of whom?’’ Jordan asked. Of course he’d ask that.  
‘’N-no one you know.’’ you replied. That was a lie, of course he knew Bendy. But oh boy, you were not telling a single soul that the cartoon demon left you feeling flustered for hours.  
‘’Really now?’’ Jordan raised his eyebrow at you. ‘’Because I can tell you’re lying.’’ he added.  
Shit. Shit shit shit. You panicked internally. Of course he read you like an open book. You pondered for a moment before giving in.  
‘’Okay, but you need to promise you won’t tell a soul or laugh.’’ you said, holding out your hand. ‘’Pinkie promise.’’  
Jordan locked his pinkie finger with you. ‘’Pinkie promise.’’ he said, barely containing his excitement. It was childlike.  
‘’Aight. It was… it was…. ugh, it was Bendy.’’ you finally said, all the while fiddlinfg with the hem of your signature white hoodie. He looked at you. Then he smiled, even grinned.  
‘’Really now? You got the hots for a cartoon character, and not only that, the one and only you have loved since your childhood.’’ he exclaimed.  
‘’Yeah.’’ you mumbled, you could feel your face heat up and go red from the embarrassment.  
‘’It makes sense if I’m being honest. But it’s still kinda silly.’’ Jordan said, letting out a chuckle. He spun around in his chair, and focused on the background on the screen.  
‘’Why don’t you go and animate your beloved Bendy?’’ he piped up, not looking at you. Your face probably went redder than it already was, but you walked out of the small room and into the hallway leading to your own small room. You sat down, looking at the black screen of your screen tablet before sighing out loudly. Oh, Jordan was so gonna tease you about this for weeks to come. You were sure of it. Now you kinda regretted telling him. Maybe just a little bit. No, a lot. Sighing in defeat, you turned on your computer and got to work. You had a deadline to catch. 

Sure enough, when lunch break came around, Jordan started teasing and questioning you more. You chucked a piece of salad at him, and a roll of paper towel before storming out of the kitchen and to the bathrooms. Turning the faucet on, you rinsed your hot red face. You looked up at your reflection. Redder than deep red, you sighed at your reflection. 

For the remainder of the day, you stayed in your little working space, cleaning up the next scene while Jordan’s words echoed deep inside your brain.  
‘’Imagine if there was a way to bring cartoons to life. Then you could have your dream significant other.’’ he had said. You shook your head. There wasn’t a way to bring cartoons to life, and you were grateful of that. Really grateful. 

By the end of the day, you had gotten the whole scene cleaned and ready for coloring. You made your way home rather quickly, avoiding Jordan on your way to your car.

When home, you picked up the mail and noticed you had a letter there. Curiosity caught the best of you before you reached your apartment, so you opened up the letter. Reading through it, you realized it was an invitation to come to the old animation studio that used to animate the show in the 80s. 

It was odd. Who had sent it? How did they find your address? Did they know you were the lead characters animator and wanted to show you how it was done in the good ol’ days? Millions of questions riddled your mind as you made your way through the rest of the day. Sleeping was almost impossible that night. The invitation asked you to come over the next day, which was Saturday.  
Eventually you managed to fall asleep, and your dreams were vibrant. 

Come morning, you groggily get up and shower. It would be a long car drive to the old studio, so you prepared snacks and lunch for the go. Within an hour you were on your way to the location they had provided in the letter. It took you several hours to get there, and finding the location was a struggle and a half. But you found it eventually. You parked your car in front of the old building, and made your way over.  
The building had seen better days. It was old and rundown. Making your way to the front door, you tried your luck to see if it was open. The knob turned and the door swung open. You carefully made your way in, the door closing on its own with a loud bang behind you. This startled you, so you jumped up a few feet. You thought it must’ve been the wind, so you paid it no further attention.

The long corridor was filled with posters from the old days. You reminisced at the sight of them, the nostalgia kicking in swiftly. You called out to the building, only to be greeted with silence. Huh. Maybe whoever invited you over here wasn’t there yet. Thinking the person would appear at some point, you made your way to the big hall at the end of the corridor and sat down on a chair. Looking around you noticed the Bendy cutouts all around the room. The design hadn’t changed over the years at all, and you were grateful of that. The original design was the one you held so near and dear to your heart. Sitting there in the silent room, your thoughts began to wander back to the night you dreamed of him.

Until suddenly, you heard a noise coming from nearby.  
‘’Hello?’’ you shouted out, expecting someone to turn up. No response, so you got up and made your way toward where the noise had come from. It was at the end of another hallway, a doorway that was boarded up. Tilting your head, you made it closer. When you were close enough, you heard the noise again. Now that you were right at the doorway, you looked through the boards. Suddenly something jumpscared the living shits out of you, something not human and you yelped at that. Then the black substance, ink you presumed, began flowing in from everywhere and you decided to bolt it down the hallway and towards the exit. Right before you reached the exit, the floor beneath you gave in and you fell down with the boards. 

The instant you hit the floor, you blacked out. Great, now whatever that had jumpscared you, could get to you easily and do its worst to you.

Just great.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's your first actual face to face encounter with the monster that spooked the living daylights out of you

Your eyes flickered open, and you had a pounding headache. What happened? Oh right, you got jumpscared the living daylights out of you and fell down through the floor. Inspecting your surroundings, you noticed the pentagram beneath you. Well, if that wasn’t ominous, then nothing was. Struggle after struggle you finally got up, your legs still trying to buckle beneath you. You limped to the room next door, only to find the path blocked by wooden boards. Huh. You thought to yourself that you needed to find something to break the boards with. So you wandered around the space, before your eyes landed on a hatchet. Cheering internally, you grabbed it by the handle and went to swing at the boards. One by one, you got them to break and you continued on your path with more roadblocks.   
Oh this was gonna be a doozy if the doorways were gonna be boarded up like this. 

Eventually you came into a bigger sized room, with multiple pentagrams painted on the walls, Bendy cutouts and white candles in front of them. Yeah, definitely ominous and not scary at all. You made your way through the room, before finding a hallway flooded with ink. Oh great, you were gonna have to say goodbye to your sweatpants after this endeavour. You stepped into the ink, and made your way forward. It wasn’t long when you heard footsteps that weren’t yours and stopped. Looking at the doorway up front, you saw someone- or something- pass by.  
‘’Hey! Hey wait up!’’ you yelled after them, and hurried through the ink. When you got out of the hallway, they were gone. Vanished in thin air. All you saw was another pentagram, Bendy cutout and candles. Okayyyy, that was creepy to say the least. Shaking your head, you pondered if you had just seen things. Maybe you hit your head worse than you thought. Nevertheless, you began making your way through the new room and out into another hallway. The long hallway finally ended with a staircase leading you lower and into yet another room. You heard the footsteps again, but before you could turn around, you felt a blunt object hitting you on the back of your head and you fell to the ground, head spinning. You turned your head to see the same being from earlier, towering over you. You couldn’t hear a thing he was saying, as there was loud ringing in your ears. And before long, you passed out once more. 

When your flickered open again, you felt your head pounding. Your vision was blurry, but trying to rub at your eyes you realized you were tied up. So you took to blinking until your eyes regained focus on your surroundings. 

‘’Ah, my little sheep, I see you’re awake.’’ 

The sudden voice left you yelping. You looked around and noticed the being standing in the corner of the room. Now that you were inspecting him closer, you saw he wore white overalls and a Bendy mask. Okay, that was also creepy as fuck.  
You struggled to tug your arms, but they were tied up tightly behind you. The being took a step forward. ‘’Now, now my little sheep, no need to be alarmed.’’ he said, kneeling down to your level.  
‘’Fuck off.’’ you blurted, glaring at him, still trying to tug your arms free.   
‘’Language young sheep. You wouldn’t want our saviour to hear you speak so fouly.’’ he said. He went on about being freed from his inky prison and other nonsense that you didn’t care to listen to. You were busy trying to free yourself, and fighting off the pounding headache. It wasn’t until the being disappeared and his voice came through the speakers that you paid attention. You took a look around the room, noticing the doors up front open up as the being was yelling about an offering and his saviour. Then you heard him start yelling in fear, and the gurgles of what sounded like drowning. How did he drown on dry land? You didn’t spare another thought at it, as you managed to free your arms finally. You tugged at the rope around your stomach and ripped it off, got up and headed to the doors. Before you left, you grabbed the hatchet laying on the ground. You never knew when you’d need it.

You took a few steps into the inky abyss, before something jumped up from it and jumpscared you. You yelped, stumbled and fell over. You quickly regained yourself, struggled up and looked at what was in front of you.  
The sight in front of you had your heart leap up to your throat, and made your blood run cold. It was a tall being, ink dripping down it’s face where a grin was plastered on. Now that you looked closer, it seemed familiar to you for some reason. But you didn’t get to think further as it started approaching you and you decided it was best to just sprint as fast as you could since it seemed to be hostile. The ink sloshed beneath your feet as you made your way to a door. You leaped through, landing on your stomach, you quickly got up and slammed the door shut. Maybe it was stupid enough to not know how to open doors. You really hoped so. You didn’t stay long enough to find out about that though, as you started running farther into the room you entered and into a hallway. You didn’t stop until you reached another staircase. Gasping for breath, you stumbled and fell over. You didn’t bother getting up as your lungs were burning and feet were sore from running.   
Glancing around the room, you noticed more posters plastered on the walls. You stared at one of them for longer. It had Bendy on it, and the title read ‘’Bendy in The Dancing Demon’’. You stared at it intensely. Then it hit you like a truck. 

That inky monster from before seemed familiar to for a reason. You shook your head, not believing your own thoughts and eyes. He couldn’t be. It wasn’t making any sense. That being was most certainly a monstrous incarnation of your beloved Bendy. How on Earth? Cartoons couldn’t come to life, no way. Nuh uh. You shook your head in disbelief. 

That thing wasn’t at all like Bendy though. The Bendy you knew was small and friendly, and certainly did not look like the monster you had seen. It seriously made no sense. You didn’t even try to make any sense of it with you headache. Sighing in defeat, you got up and raced up the stairs. He could still be after you, so you thought to keep on moving. 

You had made your way up a few levels. Where on Earth was the exit in this place? Silently, you wandered around the halls and rooms, making as little noise as possible just in case he could hear you. Then you came across another hallway filled to the brim with ink, and you cursed internally before stepping in. You moved as quickly as possible, you didn’t want the earlier jumpscare to repeat since it seemed the monster Bendy could move in ink. You made it to the end of the hallway when you heard the sloshing of ink behind you. Heart in your throat you turned around and saw it. Half of a humanoid inky being storming towards you. You braced yourself, raised the hatchet and swung at it. You swung until it died and disappeared into a puddle of ink. Swiftly you made your way away from the hallway, fearing there’d be more than just one of those things hiding in there. You became very wary of any ink puddles on the ground, and avoided them at all cost. 

It seemed like an eternity before you found yourself in a big room. You heard clattering from around the corner and yelped, before regaining your posture and preparing the hatchet. You shook as you heard footsteps.   
What you saw next made you almost drop the hatchet.   
‘’Boris?’’ you whispered. Sure enough, there he was, alive. The wolf looked at you, before motioning for you to follow him. You pondered for a moment what to do. He didn’t seem to be hostile so you decided to follow him. He lead you down several levels of the building, into a small room where he showed you to an even smaller room with a makeshift bed. He must’ve wanted you to rest, so you reluctantly made your way to the bed and laid down, never letting the hatchet out of your hands. As you were laying there, you gazed around the room. An old, worn out chest. A cute cartoon Bendy clock on the wall. Cans of bacon soup scattered all around. A few broken shelves. Lots of things to take in. Before long, you felt your eyelids get heavier and heavier, and finally you fell into the land of slumber. The events from earlier crept into your dreams, and you had a bad dream about the monstrous Bendy attacking you. You were just about to receive the final, killing hit in your dream when you were woken up by rapid shaking. Your eyes shot open, and you panicked for a bit before noticing Boris beside you. It was him shaking you to wake up. You must have made noise in your sleep and alerted him.   
‘’I’m fine, I’m fine. Just a bad dream.’’ you said, sitting up in the bed. Boris seemed to calm down at your speaking, as he left the room. He came back with a bowl of bacon soup, and offered it to you. You took it, thanked him and gulped it down. Man, you hadn’t even realized how hungry you really were until now. The bowl was empty faster than you drew.

You exited the small room you were in, following Boris.   
‘’Hey man, do you know the way out of this place?’’ you asked. He turned to you, nodding his head. Your eyes lit up.  
‘’Really? Can you show me the way?’’ you asked, trying not to sound desperate. Like you were. Very desperate to get out of there alive.

Boris pondered for a moment, before making his way towards a metal door. You followed him promptly. He lead you down a few levels.

‘’Isn’t the exit in the upper levels?’’ you asked. Boris didn’t answer, or even look at you. He just shushed you.   
‘’Boris?’’ you prompted. He now turned to you and motioned for you to be quiet. You didn’t realize it until it was too late. A small being, with a wrench approached you fast. You yelped, but held out the hatchet and blindly swung forth a few times, every time hitting something. It wasn’t until you heard a gurgle that you looked in front of you. The being was laying on the ground, dead. You looked at it, inspecting further. It looked like Charley from the Butcher Gang, but a bit twisted. You shuddered at that. Were the rest of the gang nearby? You followed Boris in silence, not wanting to attract anymore unwanted attention to yourself.

It felt like an eternity, but eventually Boris brought you to a room with a lift. You rushed to it. ‘’Will this take me back to the highest level?’’ you asked, turning to Boris. He nodded and your eyes lit up. You made your way inside the lift, and pressed the button you thought to be the highest possible level. Boris joined you in the lift. It ascended very slowly and let out very gruntled and creaky noises. It was now that you feared it wouldn’t go all the way up. And just like that, it stopped before beginning to descend fast. So fast that your head was spinning, and your stomach did loops, making you feel like vomiting.

Then finally it crashed on the ground level. You toppled over, scratching yourself in the process. It felt like you headache was coming back, and everything was spinning around you. You felt dizzy, with a strong need to vomit. Though, you wondered how you were still alive.  
‘’Are you okay, Boris?’’ you asked when you regained your posture. The wolf nodded. You yelped when the lift doors slid open. 

‘’Well, now we need to find another way back up.’’ you muttered as you exited the lift.   
You wandered around aimlessly for a while before giving up and sitting down on an old couch. You looked around, and your blood froze when you saw the ink puddles forming into humanoid beings. You shot up, hatchet at hand and lunged forward to one of them, hitting it to the thead with the hatchet. It toppled over, disappearing. You lunged at the others, giving them the same treatment. Once you had all of them defeated you looked around and noticed Boris shaking in fear. You followed where his eyes were looking and it made your blood go even colder. There, at the end of the hallway, was the monster Bendy, trotting slowly towards the two of you. Shit. Shit. Shit.  
‘’Let’s go Boris.’’ you said grabbing him by the hand and running into the opposite direction. You didn’t dare look behind yourself. You didn’t want to see him right behind you or even a safe distance away from you. It felt like forever before you looked behind yourself. A wave of relief washed over you as you saw no one following you. You didn’t look where you were walking, and that cause you to run into someone.   
‘’Oh, sorry Bor-’’ you started but didn’t finish as you looked forward. Oh shit. You had run into the monster Bendy. How did he get in front of you? Did he know how to teleport or something? You left little to no time to think further, as you leaped back. You had the hatchet at your hands, ready to swing at him.  
‘’Come and get a piece of this!’’ you yelled, violently swinging the hatchet once. But nothing happened. This Bendy like being just seemed to stare at you. And you stared back. Glared even. Then he took a step forward. You took a step back. Another step forward, another step back. This continued until you had your back pressed to a wall. It was now that you puffed up your chest and glared deep into where his eyes should have been. You braced yourself. He crept up closer, not caring that you had a dangerous weapon at hand, knowing you knew how to use it. He was towering over you, and once he reached you he kneeled to your level. He opened his mouth, letting out a gurgled sound. Whatever he was trying to say, you couldn’t make sense of. You were trembling, gripping the hatchet tight. Then he got back up and backed up, before he was above an ink puddle and just like that, he disappeared.  
Huh. So that’s how he got in front of you. He really could travel through ink. You made a mental note of that. And just like that, you let out a breath you didn’t notice you were holding. For some ungodly reason, he didn’t hurt you. You survived. You. Were. Still. Alive. 

After finally realizing the situation, you went to look for Boris who had ran off when the ink demon appeared out of nowhere. You called out for him, but got no response nor found him. It was a shame, you enjoyed his company and would have loved for him to be there with you.

You decided to then just start looking for a way back up. 

Unbeknownst to you, you were being watched from the shadows. He was watching your every move, on every level you ascended to, he would follow far behind. He had plans for you, and he was sure he’d eventually get to succeed in those plans. But for now, he’d study you and your behaviour. The way you moved, the way you swung at your enemies, how you seemed to kill without a single bang of guilt or fear. That’s what he wanted to know about. Why did you hurt everyone else but not him? Were you simply immobile from a sudden surge of fear or did you just not want to hurt him like you had threatened.   
He would find out. He had to. 

He just had to. It was intriguing to him. In all his years down here, he had not met a person like you. You were the first one who had not shown fear for the most part, the first one to successfully clear their way through the ink monsters. There had been others, oh so many others who had died in their hands. Turned into inky monsters themselves, now suffering the fate of dying multiple times. Being unable to keep their shape. Not being able to speak. To think clearly. Oh, how this was going to be a fun game of cat and mouse. Maybe if you showed enough strength, he’d let you go. Just maybe.

It was up to you. Your fate was in your hands, and those hands would have to fight for their poor little life.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The nightmare that night... it felt too real...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter has mentions of panic attack

Splosh. Gurgle.

Splosh. Gurgle.

SPLOSH. GURGLE.

And another ink monster fell flat on its face as it died. And another, and another. Where were all of these monsters coming from? And when would they stop coming?  
You had begun to ponder if it was him sending all of them to attack you. Maybe this was part of his little game of cat and mouse?   
Oh you were determined to show him that you were no mouse. You were the dog. Or at least you liked to think so as you swung at the monsters. Maybe even a wolf, or a coyote. Or any beastly canine.

You thought back to the scene from earlier. Why hadn’t you swung at him? Why did you let him get so close? Thinking you were just in shock, or feeling a bang of fear, you let the thoughts wander off and focused on the task at hand. Keeping yourself alive and finding a way out. You wondered if Jordan had came at your apartment to see why you hadn’t showed up at work or called him in the time you had been stuck here. Wondering if any of your other friends had noticed you being gone. No one had called you, but then again you hadn’t checked your phone in all the time you were here, and there probably wasn’t even any reception down here. 

You kept on wandering forward, deep in thought. 

It wasn’t until you heard the crackle of an old projector that you got ripped out of your thoughts and back into the living world. You peeked around the corner, only for your blood to run cold. Another monster. But it was different compared to the others. Taller, with a full inky body. It seemed to tower higher than Bendy and especially yourself. From the safe distance you examined it. The old projector head sent shivers down your spine. You took notice off the film like cables hanging out of the head, and the film reel stuck in its shoulder. 

You made a mental note to try and avoid this creature as everyone you met had been aggressive towards you except for Boris. Silently, you sneak past the hallway the projector headed being was in and ran to the next floor.   
The next few levels were silent, with no monsters. And no Boris. You really hoped you could find him again. 

It wasn’t until at least 6 levels that you ran into bigger problems again. It was the whole Butcher Gang. And you had to make a plan before they reached you. You swung and you dodged, swing and dodge, swing and dodge. You got hit a few times by a wrench or a fist, but you emerged victorious eventually. The gang fell, one by one, gurgling out their dying breath. 

Ink infested your vision for a while and everything went blurry. Your headache still wasn’t letting up, and it maybe wouldn’t until you got home and got to take painkillers. Shaking your head, you trudged forward, not caring about the blurriness of your vision. It’d let up eventually. 

Another floor, another ink infested hallway. Oh great. You took at step, and made your way through the ink, carefully placing your steps just in case an ink monster would pop up. Or worse, Bendy himself, again. You got through the the ink, with no monsters popping up. Not a single one. This sent a chill down your spine as it had been normal for the ink infested hallways to contain at least one monster. Then you heard it, the sploshing of ink and turned around to see none other than the devil himself again, slowly trudging… limping? toward you in the ink. You gulped. This time you weren’t gonna back up blindly, so you turned on your heels and ran. Ran as fast as your inky feet let you. You ran and you ran, not once sparing a glance behind you until you found a broom closet to hide in. Though it might’ve not been a broom closet as it had a small window to it. You sat down, and curled up into a fetus position, holding your knees close to your chest and breathing heavily. Hoping he wouldn’t have troubled to follow you all the way here with his limp. But then again, you reminded yourself one more about his skill of moving through ink. Shit. You heard faint footsteps and your breath hitched in you throat. It could be anyone out there, so you tried not to make a single sound. The door to the closet swung open, and you didn’t dare look up as you feared for your life this time. But when nothing happened, you decided to spare a glance at the opener. You felt a wave of relief wash over your shaking body. It was Boris.  
‘’Boris!’’ you piped up. ‘’Where were you?’’   
As typical, he didn’t answer, just offered his hand to you. Gratefully, you took it and he helped you up.   
‘’We need to keep moving.’’ you said, heading for the next set of stairs. Boris followed suit. 

He wasn’t surprised by your reaction. Not at all. He knew you’d run. It was the human fight or flight instinct. And you seemed to be more flight than fight. Which left him feeling good, so good. Knowing he’d been able to intimidate you so badly. Knowing you at least in some amount feared him.   
He just wished he didn’t have the limp in his stride, so he could reach you when you start running for your dear little life. He couldn’t run, that was for sure. He could limp faster if he wanted to but that hurt him.   
Bendy had taken notice of how you took to avoiding the bigger monsters. You had managed to avoid the Projectionist, which surprised him. The Projectionist had a good sense of hearing and it was a miracle that he had not heard you. But then again, Bendy was glad you got away from that dangerous being safe. Wait. What was he thinking? Glad? Why on Earth would he be glad you were surviving?   
Maybe it was his sick twisted need of wanting to possibly kill you himself that caused him to think these thoughts. Yeah, that had to be it. He’d be the one to cause your end if it had to come down to that. Definitely. He limped through the hallway he was in. He was running way too behind from you, so he needed to catch up to see how you were performing. Upon finding a hallway that was pouring with ink, he made his way to the level you were on, quietly watching from the small puddle he had peeked out from. He smirked upon seeing you.

You were violently swinging at a couple ink monsters, and a Butcher Gang member. They fell flat on the ground and disappeared. You swiped at your sweaty forehead, and let out a breath you didn’t realize you were holding.  
Then it hit you, finally, the feeling of being watched. You turned around, looking up and down the room, but saw nothing. 

That feeling followed you through your trek through the rest of the day. It wasn’t until you let out a long yawn that you realized you hadn’t slept properly. And your stomach was growling at you to feed it.  
‘’Hey Boris?’’ you asked, the wolf turning his attention to you. ‘’You wouldn’t know any safe spaces around here to sleep in? Or any food laying around?’’ you asked. Boris tapped his chin with his index finger, before a light bulb lit up upon his head and he grabbed you by the hand and started pulling you off.   
He brought you to a small room, a couple levels above. It was protected by a metal door. Inside the room you realized it similar to the one from the beginning of your journey. Boris made you a bowl of bacon soup, which you gobbled down faster than fast. Then you felt the land of slumber call you, so you made your way to the makeshift bed in the smaller room. Laying down, you set the hatchet beside the pillow, and closed your eyes.

During your sleep you dreamed of the cartoon Bendy, which was surprising to you as you had been waiting to see nightmares of the monsters lurking around the building. It felt like a continuation to your dream of him from the night that left you all kinds of flustered.

‘’Heya there, Sugar.’’ the cartoon devil said, picking your hand in his and softly kissing it.   
‘’H-hey.’’ you muttered. You weren’t sure if this dream was gonna be any better than the nightmares.  
‘’What’s got’cha so wound up?’’ he asked. Oh great, was it that obvious you were not enjoying the moment?  
‘’N-nothing much, just the monsters I fight off.’’ you replied. He chuckled at your response.  
‘’We all got our monsters to fight off.’’ he said. You nodded, and mumbed a ‘yeah’. He took your hand and started pulling you somewhere.  
‘’Where we going?’’ you thought to ask.   
‘’I got something to show ya.’’ he replied, his attention directed forward. Oh? He brought you to a small cottage and led you inside. You took in the view inside, it seemed way more spacious now that you were inside it. Dream logic, you thought. You noticed Bendy locking the door behind you.  
‘’It’s cozy.’’ you muttered. ‘’What is that you wanted to show me?’’ you added.  
Then you noticed it, the ink dripping from his forehead and down his face.  
‘’Bendy?’’ you whispered. ‘’Is- is everything okay?’’ you continued your whispers. He didn’t answer you, oh no. He just suddenly grew in size to be the tall, lanky monster you had come to know. He let out a gurgled growl. 

Oh great, it was a nightmare disguised as a pleasant dream.  
You backed up to the wall behind you, gulping as he walked towards you. Oh he wasn’t limping?   
He placed both his hands so that you couldn’t escape and brought his face close to yours. You let out a whimper. Then you heard him speak.

‘’Scared there, Sugar?’’ he asked, his voice low and monotone. You hadn’t thought he could speak, but then again this was just a dream. The real deal had only growled and gurgled at you so far.  
‘’It’s polite to answer when asked something.’’ he said. You gulped, not daring to look at him, so you closed your eyes and whimpered out a silent ‘yes’. He seemed to enjoy your fear as he let out a hearty chuckle. You could feel his hot breath against your soft skin as he inched his face closer than you were comfortable with. You could feel tears forming at the corners of your eyes and soon enough you were a whimpering, sobbing mess under his intense gaze.   
‘’Shhhhh, Sugar, there’s no need to cry. Everything is just fine.’’ he muttered to your ear. You could feel your chest collapse in on itself, and a breath hitched up in your throat. You dared to open your eyes, only to be met with the inky face of the monster holding you in place. Tears rolled down your tender cheeks. His gloved hand made its way to swipe at the tears. You flinched at the contact. Then you noticed is touch was warm, too warm. Almost scalding hot. ‘’Shhh.’’ he repeated. He placed his inky forehead on yours, and you felt the scalding hot touch once more. ‘’Everything is just fine.’’ he repeated, his voice barely audible. 

You sobbed. Everything was not fine. Totally not fine. You were pinned to the wall by the one being you didn’t want to have you pinned to a wall ever again in your life.   
‘’Listen Sugar.’’ he began. Oh you hated how he called you that. It had been fine in the first dream, but now? No way. ‘’You’re gonna do me a favor.’’ he continued. Silence.  
‘’You’re supposed to ask ‘what kinda favor?’ you dummy.’’ he muttered. You just shook your head. ‘’No?’’ he asked. You shook your head again. He chuckled at your reaction.  
‘’I’m not giving you a choice, Sugar. You’re gonna have ta listen to me.’’ he said, ending with a growl. He grabbed your chin and made you face him. He inched his lips closer to yours. You were fearing he’d try to kiss you.   
‘’Keep on surviving. Keep on fighting.’’ he whispered, his breath hot on you face. ‘’And most importantly, keep on entertaining me.’’ he continued.

That’s when you shot up from the bed. Sweating, panting. You felt your lips tingle and you brought your hand up to them. Shit. That nightmare felt real and you shuddered.

His words echoed through your mind. Was this some kind of a sick game to him? Did he do it just to spite you? What did he want from you? You weren’t sure anymore, but you knew you’d try to avoid him more actively now. You’d also make a mental note to never sleep again. 

Okay. Time to get going. You thought it to be best to just trudge onwards. When you exited the small room, Boris gave you a look that was filled with fear. You didn’t get to ask why, as soon you looked into a mirror. Only to see your face covered in black stains. On your cheek, and on your forehead.

The color drained from your face at that. You felt dizzy, you felt sick. Had the dream been true? Did he appear in the room you were sleeping in? You had to sit down on the ground before you’d pass out. No. It couldn’t be. It just couldn’t. 

You looked down at yourself, only noticing more ink stains. You felt like vomiting. He had really pinned you, and threatened you. Called you Sugar. You felt your stomach churn, and soon enough the bacon soup from last night found its way to the ground between your feet.  
You felt tears sting at your eyes, and soon enough you were a sobbing mess once again.   
Boris rushed to your side, patting you on the shoulder. You felt your chest go tight, you began breathing rapidly and your vision went blurry. You shook your head. No, this was no time for a panic attack. You had better things to do. But nonetheless you found yourself in the midst of a panic attack.

Boris stayed by your side until you calmed down and stopped crying. You thanked him for the comfort, and got up, avoiding the puddle of vomit.

You made to try and clean of some of the stains on your face. But they were stuck for good and only time would let them fade out. Letting out a defeated sigh, you wandered out of the toilet room and toward the metal door.

You took a look at Boris, and he nodded.

‘’I’m gonna go. Stay safe, buddy.’’ were your parting words. You slid the metal door open and stepped out. It was best if you went alone, to keep Boris from being harmed.

As soon as you exited the room, you felt eyes on your back. Great. He must’ve been lurking around. 

That dang devil.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> he saves your life, even if he didnt mean to

He was very pleased. Oh so pleased. To see you wander the hallways alone. To see the ink stains on you. He could sense how tense you were, and that made his inky little heart explode with joy. Was it joy? He wasn’t sure what he felt.   
Only thing he was sure of was that you would eventually find a way out. And he didn’t want that. Not at all. He made his way silently in the shadows after you. Every so often you would glance behind yourself, still feeling eyes boring themselves into your back. You wondered if he even had eyes under all that ink that was covering his face. 

You discarded the thought as you came up to the next level. You had more important things to think about than some ink demons ability to see.

Finding the exit from that level was a struggle in on itself, but in order to get out, you had to bring power back to the door switch. You groaned out loud, retracing your steps back until you found a room that was filled with ink. You saw the doors power cables going down the wall and into the room. Groaning again, you descended the stairs, into the ink that was knee deep for you. Not long until you heard the faint sound of ink sloshing around. You stopped in your stride, and looked around. 

And that’s when your blood ran cold. You wondered how many times during your stay here, that would happen. Inside the room, you saw it… him.. whatever it was. The very same projector headed monster you had seen earlier. It didn’t seem to notice you, so you skedaddled silently across the room, ink sloshing beneath your feet. You had matched your steps with his so he wouldn’t hear you.   
You struggled to find the power switch, but when you did, you let out a silent cheer. You turned the switch to the ON option and started making your way back to the stairs. It wasn’t until now that you realized you didn’t hear the sloshing of ink anymore. You turn around, only to see the projector headed being staring down at you. You let out a loud yelp, turned on your heels and ran towards the stairs. The projector headed being ran after you, and you could feel him right behind you. Upon ascending the stairs, you saw a place to hide inside, one of those broom closets with a small window, and you prayed your feet would carry you fast enough. Hoping the beast was stupid enough to not realize where you went, even though he was exactly one or two feet away from you. You yanked the door open and slammed it shut, sinking your back into the wood behind you as you watched in fear. The projector headed being approached you, the light of his projector flickering wildly. He let out an ear piercing shriek as he lunged forwards.

That’s when you saw a gloved fist collide with the projector and heard a loud cracking sound. It was Bendy. The projector headed being stumbled back from the hit, but regained his posture soon enough. He threw a fist at Bendy, who dodged it with ease. Then the two ink monsters swapped punches. Until eventually Bendy seemed to grow tired of it and grabbed the projector headed being by the shoulders and slammed him into the wall., now ripping the projector head off. The body stumbled to the ground, and Bendy discarded the head to the floor with a loud thud. Silence fell upon the room. You let out a relieved sigh, as you were fairly certain Bendy wouldn’t notice you inside the little closet. 

Your breath hitched inside your throat as Bendy turned his gaze to look at the closet you were hiding inside. You gulped, and let out a small whimper, awaiting for your death to be next. Instead, he didn’t speak, just looked at you through the little window before picking up the body and walking off.   
What. Just. Happened? Did Bendy save your life? Why the fuck would he do that? So many thoughts and questions riddled your mind. Your knees buckled under you from the sudden release of stress and fear, and you crashed on the ground, pulling your knees to your chest.  
You hadn’t realized how exhausted you were until your eyes fluttered shut, and so you slept that night sitting in a fetus position inside the small closet.

He was sulking forward the hallway, the Projectionists body at tow. What the fuck did he just do? He wasn’t sure of it anymore. A sudden urge to protect you had filled him when he saw the projector headed monster approach your shaking, whimpering self. Was he growing attached to you? No. That couldn’t be it. He just didn’t want anyone messing with his fun. You were very entertaining to watch, he had to admit that. Having you dead would mean he wouldn’t have anything to entertain him. Yeah, that was it. Totally.  
He would never get attached to someone, not to mention a scrawny little human. Oh no, no, no sir. Now that he pondered about it further in his stride, humans were fascinating creatures. Maybe that was it? He was just fascinated by you and your antics. 

He made his way all the way to the ink machine on the main floor. He went to turn it on, and discarded the headless body inside. Out came blobs of thick ink that sprung to life and began wandering about the room around them, aimlessly.  
Bendy let out a sigh. Of course they’d be so headless in their actions. They were new to this world and it was always up to him to teach them the ways of being alive. 

You were dreaming of being free. Of the outside world, and how you finally found a way back to the highest floor. How you opened the door and got out.   
It wasn’t until you took a few steps outside that you realized you were knee deep in ink. The world around you spun, and spun and made you feel dizzy. Suddenly you were back in the old abandoned studio, running from the Projectionist once again. But this time you weren’t saved by Bendy, oh no. You had to struggle yourself free from the tight grip of the projector headed being. You managed to wiggle free and took to sprinting away. You sprinted and sprinted until you were out of the ink, and running up what seemed like endless stairs. You ran those stairs up and up and up for the remainder of your little nightmare.

You woke up a couple hours later, and stretched out your back. A loud pop sounded and you felt shivers down your spine. Man, it really wasn’t the place or position to sleep in. You got up carefully, peeking through the small window before swinging the door open and exiting the closet. Instantly a blob of ink sprung to life, and you swung your hatchet at it until it died and disappeared again into a puddle. You’d have the muscles of a trained professional at this rate.   
You let out a chuckle at the thought. You’d be finally able to win Jordan in an arm wrestling match when you got out of here. Then the thought crossed your mind. Were you ever gonna get out? Especially alive? The monsters here seemed so keen on killing you and Bendy was so keen on keeping you here. To entertain him, as he had said the other night during your nightmare. You scoffed. You weren’t a show pig. You didn’t want to entertain him, but you took a guess that he took great pleasure in seeing your struggles. What a twisted mind it was. Clearly not completely sane. Definitely not sane. Maybe just a little bit insane.

You walked so deep in thought that you didn’t realize you about to stumble and fall. the realization only struck you when you were halfway to the ground, planting face first into the wooden boards. You yelped at the pain, the scream coming out gruntled as your face was still on the ground. You lifted yourself up on your arms and looked behind you to see what you had tripped on. Oh. A hatchet. Why were there so many hatchets laying around here?   
You got up, and picked the second hatchet from the ground. This would come in handy, and you felt like one of your favorite creepypasta characters with the double hatchets. 

You then made your way forward, silently humming a tune.

It was starting to frustrate you. How many darn hallways filled with ink were there in this darned building? You didn’t even take a step in. You knew what was gonna happen.   
‘’Alright, Bendy! Come on out and threaten me! Call me by that stupid nickname, speak to me, or gurgle out your stupid words! I’m not afraid of you!’’ you yelled out, only to be met with silence. You sighed. Of course he wouldn’t come out when called. You weren’t stupid. Just as you were about to take the first step into the ink, a hand popped out and yanked at your leg, pulling you face first into the ink. You let out a yelp before instinctively closing your mouth and eyes to avoid the black substance from entering them. You splattered around, before getting to your hands and knees. You then stood up, glaring at the ink. You knew he was in there somewhere.  
‘’What the fuck!? I could’ve drowned!’’ you yelled, and stormed forward in the ink. You didn’t get even halfway through the hallway when he appeared in front of you. You glared up at him. He tilted his head at your actions.  
‘’You’re a piece of shit.’’ you remarked, attempting to walk past him, but he blocked your path.  
‘’The last time I checked, I was a piece of ink, not shit.’’ he replied, his voice just as low and monotone as in the nightmare. Oh so he could speak outside your dreams.   
‘’Whatever, you know what I mean.’’ you spat. ‘’Let me through.’’ you continued.  
‘’How about no.’’ he replied. You shot a glare at him, a glare so deep it could cut the air.   
‘’That wasn’t a request.’’ you replied, drily.   
‘’And that wasn’t a question.’’ he replied, just as dry.  
You made to shove him out of the way, but he didn’t budge. Not a single inch. However, you kept on attempting to push him out of the way. He let out a hearty chuckle.  
‘’That's cute.’’ he said. ‘’You humans always have been so tender and weak. So… so fragile. Easy to break. Easy to end.’’ he continued.   
You didn’t reply.  
‘’You’re so fun to play with.’’ he noted.  
‘’Shut the fuck up.’’ you finally sneered. This wasn’t funny or fun. Far from it. You were just frustrated with the whole situation. He just laughed at your reaction. He kneeled down, to get to your level before grabbing your chin and forcing you to look at him. He brought his face close to yours before speaking. Talk about deja vu.  
‘’Listen here, Sugar. I do what I want, and you can’t stop me from having fun.’’ he noted, his voice dangerously low. At that moment, you didn’t think further. You let out a growl and bared your teeth at him. ‘’And I do what I want.’’ you growled, ripping yourself from his grip. ‘’Now get out of the way or you’ll have a hatchet in your shoulder, or even worse; head.’’ you added. He got back up, scoffed and finally stepped to the side, letting you through. He looked you walk past, and to the end of the hallway before exiting the hallway to the next room. He just smiled, or rather, grinned. You sure were fun to toy with, but this new side of you had him intrigued. He wanted to learn more. Oh, so much more.

And he knew he’d find a way to see what made you act so cold. Or well, he already knew what made you so cold. It was him. His behaviour had you act so cold. 

He realized he didn’t get the chance to ask you to thank him for saving your ass earlier. Fuck. He slowly limped out of the hallway and after you. He had to hear those words. Even if it’d take a fight and a half. He was determined, but you were even more determined.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A certain someone comes back and tries to kill you. Who will save you?

You kept thinking about him, and how much he infuriated you with how he acted. How he had riddled your dreams. Then a thought struck you. Was this the same Bendy as in you first dream of him all the way from that one day? And if so, did the dang demon have feelings for you? Oh that would be so fucked up. Oh so wrong and weird and oh my god no way.  
Then another thought struck. Who invited you here? Was this all Bendy’s doings? Was this his plan all along? To have you trapped in here with him and these monsters, surviving and fighting for your life just to amuse him? Fuck. His words echoed in your head. He’d do what he wanted. And you were giving him, doing, what he wanted. Fucking shit. You were his little show pig, his little mouse and he was the fucking cat. This infuriated you even further. Oh you’d show him how you felt about all of this eventually. Just he’d wait. Oh boy.

You arrived into a room that was filled with ink, wooden boards set up as a bridge to get over the ink. You took a careful step on the first board, and it creaked a little bit. You shimmied on forward fast, fearing the boards would give in. Once on the other side of the inky pool, you come a large opening. You hear faint sounds of someone speaking, and decide to call out, as stupid as that was.  
‘’Hello? Anybody there?’’ you yelled. You heard rustling behind yourself and turned around. Oh how you wished you had just stayed quiet and kept on moving forward.  
‘’You again?!’’ you yelled. Sure enough, it was the same Bendy masked ink infested human that had tried to get you killed earlier.  
‘’Oh, if it isn’t my little sheep.’’ Sammy cooed.   
‘’Shut up, I’m not your sheep.’’ you piped up. ‘’What do you want?’’ you added.  
‘’I wish to appease my lord and saviour!’’ he yelled. You had to cover your ears at how loud he was being.  
Suddenly he lunged forward and pushed you on to the ground, hatchet at hand and raised up over his head, aimed at your head. You were trembling.  
‘’Sweet dreams, little sheep. My lord will be happy with this offering.’’ Sammy said. You closed your eyes, awaiting for the killing hit.

But nothing happened. You dared to open your eyes after a short moment, to see Sammy looking behind himself and what was holding his hatchet at place above his head. You felt a wave of relief, if you could call it that, wash over you as you saw Bendy holding the hatchet. He ripped it out of Sammy’s grip with ease.  
‘’’Ah, my saviour! I was just preparing the offering!’’ the masked, ink infested human spoke. Bendy let out a growl that seemed to reverberate in his chest. He discarded the hatchet to the ground, next to you. Oh great, a third hatchet for you. You were really running out of hands to use those, so you didn’t bother with it.

You stumbled up, your knees nearly buckling under you. You noticed Sammy reach out for you, with probably anger in his nonexistent gaze. And just like that, Bendy put himself in between the two of you. What was he doing? You didn’t think about it much further, as you looked at the horror show that was about to happen in front of you.   
You could hear the growling reverberating from Bendy, and see how he grew in size, his white face now disappearing and being replaced with a face full of ink. He grew at least three times in size. Ink was dripping down his newly grown body.  
He turned to look at you for a split second. You weren’t sure what that was all about, so you shook the thoughts out of your head.

Bendy was now towering over Sammy, growling and baring his teeth at him. Before long Bendy slammed the used-to-be-human to the wall, who let out a loud yelp at the sudden attack.   
‘’M-my saviour! What are you doing?’’ Sammy half yelled. Bendy replied with an ear piercing shriek and lunged forward. He didn’t stop until he hit the wall. Oh how stupid, you thought. Sammy scrawled up and tried to run, but he had a limp in his step so he didn’t move fast enough. The beastly being of a Bendy lunged after him, pinning him to the ground and growling. Ink like drool dripped down on Sammy’s face. You weren’t sure how to react to the scene in front of you, and definitely not to what happened next. Bendy leaned down, placing his face close to Sammy’s and biting off his head. The man didn’t even get to scream.  
You cringed a little, as this was the first time you saw someone's fucking head being bitten off. Bendy turned his head toward you.  
The beastly being then marched over to you, slowly but surely shrinking in size to the regular, tall Bendy you had come to know during your stay here. He stood there, in front of you, probably expecting you to shout at him again. Or threaten him. Or fuck, even pass out on him. But, what you did caught both you and him off guard.

‘’Th-thank you.’’ you whispered. You slapped a hand at your mouth. Did you just fucking thank him? What the fuck?   
He stared at you, and you were sure if you could see his eyes, he’d be just as shocked as you were. But he regained his posture faster than you did.  
He came face to face again, kneeling down.  
‘’I-I.. uh- I-’’ you started. He placed his inky little finger to your lips. It felt comfortingly warm. You didn’t notice the small blush that creeped up on your face.  
‘’Shhh. No need to thank me, Sugar.’’ he said. His finger lingered on your lips for a bit longer, before he pulled away and turned around to leave. You watched as he descended into the inky pool and finally disappeared all together.  
You raised your hand to your lips. They were warmer than usual to the touch. Shaking you head, you marched onward, knowing full well that he’d be keeping an eye on you soon enough from the shadows.

You thought to keep on moving, making your to the makeshift gate leading out of the large room and bashing it open with your hatchet. It creaked agonisingly loudly in response as the doors swung open, and you made your way through.

You fought off the feeling of being followed. It was probably just your imagination, as you knew now that Bendy was probably watching you. You pondered he wouldn’t be stupid enough to actually keep limping out in the open behind you. 

Suddenly, you heard a noise from behind you, probably a tin can falling and rolling, or something like that. Maybe it was another ink monster? It surprised you when you turned around and saw him standing there.   
‘’What do you want?’’ you asked, as you kept on walking forward. You had your hand at the handle on one of your hatchets.  
‘’No need ta be afraid, Sugar. I won’t attack you.’’ he said, limping behind you. ‘’I just got bored of watching from the shadows.’’ he continued.  
‘’Uh huh.’’ you reply, short and sweet. ‘’I’m not afraid of you, didn’t I tell you that earlier?’’ you added.   
‘’Ya actions speak louder than ya words.’’ Bendy said. Oh. You removed your hand from the handle. ‘’Better?’’ you blurted, and slapped your hand at your mouth. When were you gonna stop doing that? Bendy chuckled at your actions. You turned your head to glare at him.  
‘’You’re way too much fun.’’ he said between fits of laughter. This caused you to stop on your tracks, roll your eyes and turn around.   
‘’Seriously dude! Stop!’’ you fumed. This only made him laugh harder. You let out an inhumane screech and turned around to stomp forward. You were getting tired of this little game of his. Now that you thought about it, he reminded you of Jordan a lot. Both liked to mess with you and make you feel things you didn’t want to feel. Frustration being the most prominent of them. 

Finally he succeeded in stopping his little fits of laughter, and continued following you through the hallway.  
You welcomed the silence with gratitude, but after some while it grew awkward.   
‘’Soooo, you wouldn’t happen to know who was behind the invitation I got?’’ you started.   
‘’You really haven’t figured it out yet?’’ he replied.  
You thought for a moment, back to the day you got the invitation. You did wonder why it was covered in ink stains. It now made sense.  
‘’So it was you?’’ you asked, looking behind yourself. He nodded, that smirk never leaving his face. ‘’Why?’’ was your next question. He fell silent for a moment.  
‘’T-that ain’t none of your business.’’ he finally replied, smirk no longer apparent on his face. Did he stutter? You didn’t notice the little grey flush on his face.   
‘’Uh huh, sure. Don’t tell me why I’m stuck here for who knows how long, fighting, surviving, just to amuse your bored little head. I appreciate that.’’ you remarked.  
‘’You’ll figure it out eventually.’’ he replied.  
‘’What if I don’t want to? Huh?’’ you piped up.  
‘’You do, why else would you ask.’’ he noted. Oh shit, he got you there. You rolled your eyes.   
‘’Yeah, yeah.’’ you replied sheepishly.   
Silence fell upon you two once more. It wasn’t long until you started humming a tune to yourself, to keep the silence from swallowing you for too long.  
‘’What song is that?’’ you heard him ask. You pondered whether to answer or not.  
‘’A Thousand Years, by Christina Perri. I doubt you know it.’’ you finally replied.  
‘’That’s a new one, definitely.’’ he said. ‘’How do the lyrics go?’’ he added. You looked at him. What? The? Fuck?   
‘’Are you asking me to sing to you?’’ you asked, already knowing the answer. He nodded at you.

‘’Okay then. Sure.’’ you muttered, keeping your gaze forward. You began singing the song, your voice carrying through the hallway. It was kinda funny to be quite honest. The lyrics somehow fit how you felt about him, or at least the cartoon him. You’d never love this version of him, no way. All he did was make you fume.  
You lowered your voice to a barely audible whisper at the part that sung about dying everyday, not being afraid and loving for a thousand years. 

Once you finished the song, he asked you to sing another one. You asked him why he wanted you to sing to him, and he fell silent again. You never caught a glimpse of him blushing grey. You sang a couple more of your favorite songs, enjoying yourself much to your surprise, as you nearly yelled the chorus to one of the songs.

‘’You- you sing so nicely. Better than anyone from before.’’ he spoke as you finished ‘Empire’ by Hollywood Undead. ‘’It’s nice to learn some new songs.’’ he added.  
‘’Yeah.’’ you replied. ‘’Must get so boring listening to the same old songs.’’ you didn’t even realize what you said until it was too late. You mentally slapped yourself. Were you making acquaintance with the demon that was causing so much frustration to you?   
Then again, you thought, he was the only one out here who could speak and it felt nice to speak with someone. Huh. Maybe you could tolerate him, just to keep your sanity at check. Yeah, that seemed possible. Especially since he seemed keen on keeping you company, and not startling or attacking you anymore. 

He wasn’t sure what he was doing anymore, not at all. He still had that strong urge to protect you. Especially after Sammy’s attack. Seeing that filthy human being treat you like that made his inky blood boil, had made ever since the first attack.   
He admitted it to you, that he liked your voice. It kind of just escaped his lips, he didn’t mean to. Not yet at least. Maybe later, but definitely not now. But alas, he had done it. And he had stuttered. Bendy was glad you didn’t pick up on his stutter or blushing. Oh he wouldn’t let you get away with that information. 

Now that he thought about it, ever since the beginning, he hadn’t wanted to see you hurt. And yet you almost were, on two occasions now, and he had to save your ass. He felt great accomplishment in killing those who had tried to hurt you. The ‘thank you’ from earlier left him feeling all giddy up inside, but he wouldn’t admit it to you. Oh no, no way.

He kept on limping a few feet behind you. Making sure nothing surprised you from behind you. Anything that tried to creep up behind you, he glared down at and smashed back into an inky puddle. 

He was like your twisted little guardian angel, or in this case, demon. And he didn’t complain about that, at all. He was quite enjoying it actually, the feeling of success from protecting you filling him with joy he’d never felt before. 

‘’Hey Bendy?’’ you snapped him out of his thoughts. He shook his head.  
‘’Huh?’’ he asked.  
‘’Were you always like this?’’ you asked.  
‘’’Like what?’’’ he asked back.  
‘’Like, uh… the Bendy I grew up with was small and cute and had a face an-’’ you rambled on and on before he paused you.  
‘’No, I haven’t always been like this.’’ he said.   
‘’What happened?’’ you asked, now stopping and turning around to face him. He stopped right in front of you. Way too close for your comfort, but you brushed it off.  
He seemed to ponder for a moment.  
‘’It’s kinda difficult ta explain.’’ he finally spoke.  
‘’Try me.’’ you said.  
‘’Well okay then. I just kinda got consumed by the ink and turned into this, what you humans would refer to as a monster.’’ he explained. ‘’Also did you just say you find me cute?’’ he added.  
You looked up at him, face flushing red, then looking at the ground.   
‘’I said I find the cartoony you cute.’’ you whispered. ‘’This version of you though, not so cute. A bit terrifying to be honest.’’ you added.  
‘’Not so cute? So a little bit cute?’’ he pried. Did he really want you to call him cute? What?  
‘’Well…. I don’t know.’’ you replied. ‘’Anyways, back to the point.’’ you added. He chuckled at your response, which caused you to roll your eyes. You turned around and began pacing forth once more.   
‘’How did it feel like? To be consumed by the ink?’’ you asked.  
‘’It’s like… I don’t know how to quite word it. Uh. Have you ever had those kinda nightmares where you get swallowed whole by something and are unable to escape?’’ he started. ‘’That’s how it felt like at first. To not be able to escape something that has consumed you whole.’’ he continued. He fell silent afterwards. You didn’t ask him anymore questions. There’d be a time and place to pry out more, but right now you needed to focus on the task at hand.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> you get attacked, and he just has to protect you

It had been a couple of days since he started following you out in the open. It was truly nice to have someone to talk to, even if he was a bit snarky and kept on calling you by his stupid little nickname of ‘’Sugar’’. He had a weird sense of humour, you’d made a mental note of that as well. You’d allowed him to walk, well actually limp, next to you so you had slowed down the pace you were walking at to match his. Why you did this was beyond you. Maybe you just wanted to try and be nice to him? But what reason was there to be nice to him? None. But here you were, being nice to the monstrous ink being.

You had repeatedly asked him to show you the way out, but he wasn’t agreeing to that. You’d pout everytime, and he’d laugh and say it was only a matter of time you’d find your way back up. You just had to believe in yourself.

Believe. The word echoed in your head. You just had to believe.

You had gone up a few levels before you heard loud gurgling noises. At first you thought it was just Bendy, but when the sound went farther away, you figured there was someone on the level with you.  
‘’Oh shit.’’’ you said as you rounded the corner and saw giant puddles of ink everywhere. Instantly some ink monsters spawned from them and headed toward you. You swung your hatchet at them, killing them off one by one. The puddles didn’t disappear however, instead they seemed to move and form into a big puddle in the middle of the room.   
Then it spawned. A gigantic, fully humanoid ink monster with legs and all that jazz. It lunged toward you, and you dodged it. Swinging your hatchet at it, but you hit the air around it. It lunged for you again, and again and you kept on dodging. Then you made the mistake of not looking where you were stepping in, and stumbled to the ground. You noticed the creature had found a hatchet hung up on the wall. With the hatchet in hand the creature was closing in on you now, getting way too close for your comfort. You struggled to get up, fear taking over as you tried to reach for one of your hatchets on the ground, to at least try and protect yourself with something. You closed your eyes just as the being was a mere foot away from you.

But you didn’t get hit, oh no. You quickly opened up your eyes to see a black body in front of yourself, a far too familiar black body. You looked up, seeing the hatchet dug deep into his shoulder, way too close to his throat, ink oozing out like no tomorrow. You had no idea what came over you, but you grabbed both of your hatchets and lunged from behind Bendy and on to the inky humanoid. Swinging wildly at it, until you felt your hatchet hit something. You pulled it out of the shoulder of the being, and swung again and again and again until it went limp and fell to the ground beneath you. You breathed heavily, realization finally striking you as looked back behind yourself. Oh shit. Oh shit shit shit. Bendy. He was hurt. The hatchet still lodged deep into his shoulder, he was kneeling down on the ground. He tried to pry at the hatchet but you yelled at him to stop what he was doing. You rushed over to the ink demon, dropping your hatchets on the ground near him.  
‘Shit shit shit.’’ you mumbled. You had gone to a few first aid lessons, but none of them had prepared you for this. You dug through your messenger bag, hoping you’d taken your first aid kit with you before you left home about a week ago. You let out an ‘aha!’ when you found it hidden deep inside the bag. Pulling it out and preparing the gauze. Then you realized you had nothing to stop the bleeding with. A thought crossed your mind, and so you stripped off your ink stained white hoodie. It’d have to do for now.  
‘’Okay, this is gonna hurt.’’ you said as you grabbed the hatchet by the handle and yanked at it. As it pulled out of the wound, Bendy let out a muffled growl. You didn’t pay any mind, and instead pressed your hoodie around the wound.   
‘’Hold this in place and apply as much pressure as you can.’’ you instructed, now getting the gauze out. He did as you said, which left you surprised a little bit. 

‘’Why would you do that?’’ you asked. He didn’t look at you when he answered.   
‘’Because I wanted to… protect… you...’’ he said.  
‘’Why? You don’t need to protect me, I can do it myself.’’ you replied.  
‘’Clearly not. You froze. It’s what you humans do.’’ he said, now looking at you. Not answering him, because he was right, you removed the hoodie from the wound. It was still slightly oozing with ink. You took the gauze from the ground and wrapped it around the wound, securing it tightly around his body. He felt warm to the touch.   
You tugged the first aid kit back into your bag, and squeezed any excess ink out of your hoodie before wrapping it around your waist.

You looked at Bendy. He glanced at you, and attempted to get up, but you placed your hands on his shoulders, avoiding touching the wound, and pressed him back down.  
‘’Nuh uh, we’re staying put until the wound stops bleeding.’’ you exclaimed.  
‘’But it’s not safe out here.’’ he protested. You shook your head, picking up both of your hatchets. ‘’I can still fight.’’ you said. He sat there silently.  
‘’Why do you care so much about when it stops bleeding? I thought you didn’t like me.’’ he asked. You looked at him. Was he being serious?  
‘’I don’t…. Listen, you’re the only one who isn’t actively trying to kill me out here, at least not anymore. And I’d like to keep my sanity by having someone to talk with.’’ you replied.  
He looked away from you. His grin faltering for a mere second and a slight blush appearing on his face. You noticed this, but ignored it.  
‘’Bendy?’’ you started. He didn’t look at you. ‘’Dude.’’ you tried again. He avoided your gaze all together. You let out a huff, got up and walked in front of him, now doing the same to him as he had done to you. Grabbing both sides of his head and forcing him to look at you.   
‘’Dude, stop worrying so much. I’m fine, you’ll be fine. And lastly, thank you, again.’’ you exclaimed, your voice lowering to a whisper at the last part. You really wished you could see his eyes, to know if he was avoiding you gaze or not. You let out a sigh. He was acting like a child.  
You got up, and made your way to a corner in the room, leaving him alone since he seemed to not want to be talked to right now. And you usually were one to leave people alone and respect their personal space when they needed it. Sitting down, you rested your head on your knees, waiting for slumber. You hadn’t really slept well for the past week at all, so you would appreciate any moment that let you rest your eyes.

Sparing one last glance at the ink demon hunched over at the other side of the room, you let your eyes flutter shut and the sweet land of slumber claim you.

He watched you sleep. Like he had done for the past week. He watched as your chest raised and lowered at every breath, how you would flick your finger in your sleep, or make a rather cute sound. He needed to sleep just as badly as you did, but he didn’t dare leave the two of you at the possible hands of the ink monsters, so he sucked it up and stayed up every time you slept. He was growing very tired though. But he was too scared to ask you to let him sleep. Wait, scared? Why was he scared of such a thing? He pondered about it for a long time. It could’ve been because he needed to keep the facade of being the big bad here, to not show any signs of weakness. Which he had already done three times. Now the monsters knew he had a weakness, and that weakness was you. He hated to admit it, but there it was. 

Then it dawned upon him. He liked you.Originally he had invited you in to have fun with, to scare you out of your pants. To show you that cartoons can come to life in this haunted house. To prove you wrong about that little thought.   
Dang, he didn’t mean to start liking you. Not at all. But here he was, sitting on the ground, reminiscing how you had held his face, how you had touched him ever so carefully while applying the gauze. How you had rushed in to save his life after he had saved yours. Heck. Maybe he even loved you. So deep in thought, he didn’t notice that you had woken up from your short slumber. He didn’t hear you call out to him. He didn’t even notice you walking over to him. It wasn’t until you patted between his horns that he flinched and took notice of you. You yourself flinched a bit at the sudden reaction from him.   
You regained yourself faster than he did.  
‘’How’s the wound?’’ you asked. He looked at you, and then tried to look at the wound, then back at you. He let out a hum.  
‘’Stopped bleeding.’’ he replied.   
‘’Good. Stay put, I’ll need to swap the gauze.’’ you said, bouncing back to your spot in the corner and picking up your bag. You hastily retraced your steps back to him and kneeled down by his side. You ever so carefully unwrapped the gauze around him. It had slightly gotten stuck on the wound itself, so you had to use a bit more force to get it off.   
‘’Shhh, it’s fine.’’ you hushed him as he let out a… whimper? That was new. You discarded of the used gauze and wrapped around him a new layer of gauze. After you were done, you couldn’t resist the urge to pat him on the head, between his horns. It was kind of a reward for behaving well. You were surprised however when he started purring like a cat and his little tail swished around. You let out a little chuckle. He heard you, and instantly was flushed grey.  
‘’D-don’t laugh!’’ he piped up, not being able to stop purring and blushing.  
‘’Okay, now I will call you cute.’’ you said, holding back a fit of giggles. ‘’Didn’t think you were like a real cat.’’ you added. He crossed his arms over his chest and huffed.  
‘’I’m not a cat!’’ he argued.   
‘’But you are kinda cute though... just like a cat.’’ you responded, now booming into laughter. He couldn’t pout for long, as he realized you probably meant well. Soon he joined you in your little fit of laughter. It hurt to laugh, but he laughed anyways. He would heal fast from the wound he got, and soon it’d be nothing but a memory.

Soon enough the two of you were back on track and moving to the higher levels. A question popped up in your head.  
‘’Hey Bendy?’’ you began. ‘’Since you and Boris are real… is Alice too?’’ you continued. He seemed to freeze at the question. You stopped and turned to him. He fiddled around for a bit.   
‘’I take that as a yes.’’ you noted and kept moving forward.  
‘’She… she was.’’ Bendy replied.  
‘’Was? Is she dead now or something?’’ you asked, full of curiosity.   
‘’As dead as dead can be.’’ he said.  
‘’Oh… how’d she die?’’ you kept asking questions he didn’t want to answer.  
‘’Uh, it’s a long story.’’ he replied. You turned your head at him.   
‘’I think we’ve got the time.’’ you said. Bendy let out a sigh.   
‘’Fine.’’ he said. And so, he went on to tell how someone before you had been a fighter as well and had killed her after running errands for her for an eternity. 

‘’Oh wow.’’ was your reply.   
‘’Yeah… she was a bit insane.’’ Bendy said.   
‘’A bit? You mean a lot.’’ you replied. Bendy chuckled. Comfortable silence fell upon the two of you, and you had to just wonder, how long this would last.  
You were kinda hoping it’d take long to find the exit, since you were now genuinely enjoying the demons company. But you’d never tell him that. Oh no no no. Or well, maybe one day. But until then, it’d be your little secret.

Or as much of a secret as it could be.

He sensed how relaxed you were in his presence, comparing to the first few days. It made him quite happy. The smile on his face being genuine now. He liked to think the two of you were friends at this point. But oh, oh how he longed for more. He was surprised by these thoughts at first, even a bit disgusted that he’d feel such soft, humane feelings for someone who was a human. But now, he kind of cherished the feeling. The thought of having you all to himself. He wanted to hold you close. Oh he’d have to do something to win you to his side. He just wasn’t sure what he could do, other than protect you from the bigger monsters and keep you company. Maybe he’d just have to play the waiting game and see if you started showing any signs of interest. Yeah, that’d be the way. For now.

But until then, he’d just enjoy your company and keep you safe.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> you teach each other to dance

You had taken a liking to humming out, and sometimes even singing out loud, some familiar tunes in his company, and he seemed to enjoy the new tunes. It really must’ve gotten boring listening to the same old cartoon tunes over and over again for him. Currently you were humming an older song by Leona Lewis, called ‘Bleeding Love’. Why you chose to sing him love songs was beyond you, but you guessed you just loved listening to sappy love songs the most and thus remembered the lyrics the best. Your other option would have been the vulgar lyrics of Hollywood Undead, and you chose not to let him hear those. You’d only sing out loud the songs that weren’t so vulgar, and that was very few.  
His tail swished around in beat with the tune. Upon reaching the final chorus, you began to sing out loud. His tail perked up at the sudden outburst of sound from you. You noticed, and chuckled a little in between words. Soon enough you got to the end of the song. You didn’t get to start the next song, as you were interrupted.  
‘’Why do you keep singing songs that are about love?’’ he asked.  
‘’I dunno.’’ you shrugged.  
‘’Is it because you love me that much?’’ he asked, smirking.  
‘’They’re just songs, dummy.’’ you remarked. Not waiting for a reply, you moved on to the next tune. It was the original opening song to the original Bendy and Friends animation series. Oh, the nostalgia that filled you caused a bounce in your steps and you did a little dance as you sprung forward. Bendy chuckled at your actions. You turned around to glare at him. That’s when an idea sprung up inside your head. You decided to see if it’d be any good.

‘‘Hey, Bendy?’’ you began.  
‘’Uh huh?’’ he replied.  
‘’You’re the Dancing Demon, right?’’ you asked.  
‘’You got that right, Sugar.’’ he said.  
‘’Why don'tcha show me your moves then?’’ you asked.  
‘’Uh, you do realize I have a limp in my step, I don’t think I can dance that well anymore.’’ he exclaimed.  
‘’Aw, c’mon! I’m sure it’ll be fine!’’  
‘’Well alrighty then… but I can’t dance alone, nor without a tune.’’ he said, smirking at you. You raised an eyebrow at him, before shaking your head.  
‘’Okay, okay. I’ll provide the tunes.’’ you said. He looked at you, expectantly. You let out a sigh.  
‘’Fiiiiiiiine, I’ll dance with you if that makes you happy.’’ you said. ‘’What kinda tunes do ya want?’’ you added.  
‘’Something slow.’’ he replied. You tapped your chin for a moment, before the perfect song idea struck you.   
‘’How about some Elvis?’’ you asked. ‘’He has some slow songs that’d be perfect.’’ you added. Without a second thought, you let yourself start humming ‘’Can’t Help Falling In Love With You’’. It surprised you when he turned to you and put his arm behind your back, grabbing your hand with his free one and entwining your fingers together. Was he serious? Out of everything, he chose waltz? Oh dear. You had always struggled with dances that required physical contact. It’s why you kinda failed physical education. Not to mention, you just weren’t a friend of physical contact unless you were asked before you were touched. Or well, you were okay with your arms and face being touched, but your lower back? Oh no no no, you don’t touch there without permission. You let out a quiet whimper of protest, and he heard you as he swooped you into dancing with him.   
‘’Everything fine there, Sugar?’’ he asked.  
‘’Just…. not a fan of people touching me where they shouldn’t.’’ you muttered. He tilted his head before realizing what you meant, unwrapping his arm, and letting it just hover above your lower back, but his hand never left yours.  
‘’We don’t have to if you don’t want to.’’ he said, his voice low.  
‘’Well I mean, it’s… I asked you to show me your moves, so I’ll just have to suck it up and go along with it.’’ you said, looking up at him. He nodded and let out a hum, before landing his arm to your lower back once more.

He led the dance, spinning you around with him, ever so slowly. His arm was wrapped around your back ever so tightly, and he every so often squeezed your hand with his to reassure you that everything was fine. You, surprisingly content, hummed the tune you’d chosen. And eventually you realized that the arm around you felt comforting with the warmth it emitted. You hadn’t even realized you were leaning into the touch, until it was too late.   
‘’Enjoying yourself there, Sugar?’’ he asked. You stayed quiet, not wanting to give him the pleasure of knowing how much you actually enjoyed this. You felt warmth creep up on your face. This caused him to let out a hearty chuckle.  
‘’You look kinda cute when you do that.’’ he said.  
‘’Do what?’’ you asked, fearing he’d say what you thought he’d say.  
‘’Blush.’’ he said, with a shit eating grin on his face. This caused you to blush even harder, and him to chuckle.   
‘’You humans truly are fascinating beings.’’ he said between laughter. You didn’t look at him for the remainder of the dance, fearing for more reasons to flush hot red and have him laugh at you. The two of you finished the dance, but he didn’t let go of you. Well, this was awkward.  
‘’Uh, Bendy? You can let go now.’’ you muttered. He seemed to flinch a bit, before unreluctantly removing his arm from around you, his fingers leaving yours. You felt unbelievably cold now, so you tugged the hoodie from your waist and put it on, hoping it’d give you the same kinda warmth that his momentarily embrace had given. It didn’t and you cursed internally at wanting the warmth so badly. You had to stop your train of thought before you’d find yourself blushing again, and you didn’t want him noticing, not to mention asking what had gotten you to do that.

‘’You wanna learn some modern dance moves?’’ you asked out of the blue.  
‘’Sure, why not.’’ he replied after thinking for a minute.  
‘’Awesome, now lemme teach you all about flossing.’’ you said, a smirk on your face.

You had successfully taught him how to floss, and that made you laugh. Oh so loudly. You contemplated on teaching him more cursed modern dance moves, but restrained yourself knowing you’d be hurting so bad from laughing too much.   
He had questioned why you laughed, and you tried to answer, but laughter kept you from answering properly. You were practically wheezing on the ground by the time you got a hold of yourself.  
‘’Sorry, it’s just… flossing is such a meme dance.’’ you said from your spot on the floor.  
‘’Meme? What’s that?’’ he asked, looking down at you with his head tilted to the side. And so you went on about what memes were, telling him everything and even attempting to show him some from your phone. Too bad there was no internet connection down there, and your phone was almost out of power too. He seemed to eventually get the idea behind memes though, as you decided to draw out some of the more popular memes on your sketchbook you hadn’t realized you had with you. While you were flipping through it, a glimpse of something you had drawn caught his attention.  
‘’What’s that?’’ he asked.  
‘’Huh?’’ you replied, stopping flipping through the sketchbook.  
‘’A few pages back, what was that?’’ he asked again. You flipped back to the page he wanted to see. Oh. It was a full sketch page. Filled with doodles of cartoon Bendy, and occasionally Will and the others. The sketch that seemed to catch his attention the most was the one of him with wings. You were sure that if you could see his eyes, he’d have literal stars in his eyes from how much he was oogling over the sketch.  
‘’Like it?’’ you asked, flipping to the next page that had more doodles of him with wings. His little tail swished around in excitement as he looked at the pages.  
‘’That looks so good!’’ he exclaimed.   
‘’Thanks.’’ you replied. ‘’Oh, hang on a second.’’ you said as you dug through your messenger bag. Once you found what you were looking for, you yanked it out. Your pencil pouch. You opened it and picked out an inking pen, placing the tip on a fresh page of the sketchbook and starting to doodle. He watched in amazement as you doodled. At first he didn’t quite get what you were drawing but when he did, he gasped out loud.  
‘’Is that me?’’ he asked. You nodded, not lifting your gaze from the sketchbook. Sure enough, you were drawing this new monstrous version of him. You doodled a few poses, before deciding he needed some wings in this form. Flipping to a whole new page, you began your work. You could practically feel the ink demon next to you beam up at the sight. Once you finished, you tugged the pen back to the pencil pouch and looked at him.  
‘’Now I kinda wanna see you with real wings.’’ you said. He seemed to like the idea as he got up and beamed at you.  
‘’I think that’s possible!’’ he exclaimed. ‘’I just need some ink.’’ he added, as he searched through the room. Eventually he found a small puddle hidden in a corner of the room. He kneeled down and placed his hands in it. The puddle disappeared from the ground and you could see his back visibly gaining little nubs on his shoulder plates, that finally grew into small devil wings. Cutely small, you noted mentally.   
‘’Amazing, isn’t it?’’ he asked as he saw you staring at him. You nodded rapidly. He seemed to grin wider at your reaction.   
‘’They really suit you.’’ you said. ‘’You know what? I think I will pitch an episode where you get wings, when I’m out of here that is.’’ you added. His smile faltered for a moment.   
Right, you were still keen on getting out of here. He knew that, yet he tried to push the thought away. He was gonna lose you eventually, liked he it or not.  
‘’Bendy?’’ you brought him back from his thoughts.  
‘’Yeah… that sounds like an episode I wanna see.’’ he replied. You beamed up at him.  
‘’Now then, why don’t we keep on moving forward. We’ve been slacking off for too long.’’ you said, putting the sketchbook back to your bag and scrambling up. He walked over to you, and the two of you began making your way to the next set of stairs leading out of the room and up to the next level.

He was deep in thought, watching you sleep once more. The thought from earlier came back to him, like a ghost haunting him. You were gonna leave one day. Leaving him alone in this old, abandoned building without anyone to talk to, without anyone to keep him sane. He heard you mutter in your sleep, saw you trash about. A nightmare? He was about to get up and come sit next to you when he saw it, an ink monster fast approaching you. He got up, and rushed over as fast as he could, kicking the ink monster in the head. It let out a gurgle and backed off. It from that day forth that he decided he’d be staying close to you when you slept, to avoid anyone or anything from harming you while you were sleeping.

Now, he had to deal with your nightmare. He could travel in dreams when he was concentrating hard enough, so he took one last glance around and then shut his hidden eyes. Upon entering your head, he could instantly see what kind of nightmare you were having. Those kinds where you’re chased by something. He noticed you running in the distance, and the monster behind you. It was the same gigantic humanoid that had chugged the hatchet into Bendy’s shoulder. Bendy ran after it, and you. It was weird, how in dreams he didn’t limp, but right now he was thankful of that. He was a fast runner, so he caught up really easily. Just as you tripped on something on the ground. The monster looming over you with a hatchet at hand, raised upon its head. Oh, this nightmare was a mixture of things that had happened to you down here.   
Bendy grabbed the hatchet out of the monsters hands, causing it to turn around in surprise. Bendy chugged the hatchet into its head, causing it to let out an ear piercing shriek as it stumbled to the ground and disappeared. Bendy quickly made it next to your shaking form on the ground, picking you up in his lap and holding you close.   
‘’Shhh, Sugar, everything is alright, the monsters won’t hurt you anymore.’’ he whispered. You trembled in his warm embrace, before finally looking up at your saviour.   
‘’B-Bendy?’’ you whispered.  
‘’It’s me. I’m here.’’ he replied, his voice just barely audible. You didn’t know what came over you, as you just snuggled closer to him. He took this as a sign to hold you even tighter. You wanted the warmth to last forever. At least it lasted long enough for you to get proper good nights sleep. Upon awakening from your slumber, you found yourself tight in Bendy’s embrace. He didn’t let go of you until you asked to be freed from his inky embrace. Which wasn’t for a long while after that nightmare. Huh, wonder what that was all about. Since when had you been this comfortable around him? The question kept echoing in your for the rest of the day.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> he finally gets some well earned sleep
> 
> oh, and you realize your feelings

Sitting there, on the old couch, sketching out some new ideas you had, you didn’t notice the ink demon behind you, his head laying on the back of the couch. You were so focused on drawing. He was intently watching you draw him in his monstrous form, with his tiny little wings. You didn’t even notice it when he started playing with a strand of your hair. Oh you’d have to wash your hair so many time after that.   
It wasn’t until he jumped over the couch and next to you that you gave him any attention.   
‘’Hey.’’ you said, bringing your focus back to the page in front of you. He didn’t reply, just scooted over and laid his head on your shoulder. Talk about invading personal space, but for some odd reason you didn’t mind it. You kept on sketching with the inking pen, now starting to hum one of the old toon’s tunes. Bendy seemed to let out a content hum, before he visibly yawned. You took notice of this.   
‘’Hey, have you slept at all since you started following me? Or do you even need to sleep?’’ you asked. He replied with another yawn.  
‘’No, I haven’t.’’ he replied shortly afterwards. You looked at him, raising your eyebrow.  
‘’Dude. Get some rest. It can’t be healthy even for you to stay up for so long.’’ you said.   
‘’Why do you care so much?’’ he asked. You looked at him shocked.   
‘’Because it isn’t healthy! And I need you to be on your edge so nothing happens to… either of us.’’ you replied, flushing slightly red.   
‘’B-but-’’ he started. You glared at him.  
‘’No but’s, get some rest. I’ll keep an eye out for danger.’’ you said. He tried to argue with you, but couldn’t as you held your gaze stern.  
‘’Alright, alright, but you need to wake me up if anything comes up.’’ he said. You let out a huff.  
‘’Don’t worry, I will.’’ you replied. He pulled even closer to you, still resting his head on your shoulder. He wrapped his arms around his knees, now in a comfortable fetus position. Not long after that, he fell into the land of slumber. 

It surprised you when he started purring in his sleep, and how his tail wrapped up around you. You couldn’t resist the urge to chuckle at him. He was being like a cat again. You found this extremely cute, and you made a mental note to tell him that someday.   
Soon enough the purring turned into what sounded like whimpering. Was he having a bad dream? You turned your head a bit, looking at him. He was trembling slightly. You set down your sketchbook and pen, and patted between his horns. This seemed to help him calm down a bit, but enough to stop the whimpering. You decided to pull him into a hug, resting your head on top of his. He instinctively wrapped his arms around your waist, and you could feel the heat rising to your face.

You began pondering why you acted the way you did. Let him touch you, hug you, hold you. Didn’t yell at him, or never meant to look at him wrong again. How his little fits of laughter and chuckling made you feel all giddy inside, how the little nickname he had for you made you feel all bubbly. 

Then it dawned upon you. You liked him. You fucking had feelings for the demon. Since when? What? Would it even be okay to date something like him? A demon? You shook your head. No, you couldn’t…. It wouldn’t….   
Then you began pondering if he’d feel the same way toward you. Was his blushing all because he liked you? Did he tease you because of that? Your little head started hurting from thinking so hard. You wanted to scream, but you didn’t want to wake him up so you just cursed internally. When he finally seemed to stop trembling and whimpering, you released your death grip on him and only let your arm lay over his shoulders. After some time, you could feel your butt getting numb from the sitting so you tried to shift you position a bit without waking him up. He stirred a little, so you remained in your original position and prayed to who knows what that your behind wouldn’t melt into the couch while he slept.

It felt like Bendy slept for at least 12 hours. But then again he hadn’t slept in, what, almost over a week now. He deserved the rest, you thought. When he woke up, he didn’t even realize at first that you had your arm draped around his shoulders or that his were wrapped tightly around you. He seemed to flush grey a little when he woke up properly and realized the situation. Bendy pulled his arms away from your waist. He stretched out far, his spine letting out an ominous crackling. Was that normal? You shook your head.   
‘’Morning sleepyhead.’’ you said, pulling your arm from his shoulders.  
‘’Mornin’.’’ he replied.  
‘’You had bad dreams?’’ you asked.  
‘’Yeah…’’ he replied sheepishly.   
‘’Wanna talk about it?’’ you asked.  
‘’I uh… well…’’ he began.   
‘’You don’t have to if you don’t want.’’ you piped in. He sat there quietly for a moment.  
‘’You… you almost died…’’ he mumbled. ‘’The Searchers…. they tried to kill you…’’ he continued, ink dripping from where his eyes should be. Was he crying? You instantly pulled him close, hugging him tight. He latched onto you, face buried to the crook of your neck as he seemed to sob.   
‘’I don’t…. I don’t wanna lose you…’’ he mumbled to your neck. You patted his back.  
‘’Hey, hey now. I might not ever leave this place since it is like a big maze. And I won’t let the monsters kill me.’’ you said. ‘’Don’t worry Bendy, you won’t lose me.’’ you added, your voice barely audible. He sniffed.  
‘’Ever?’’ he asked. You pondered for a moment before answering. ‘’Never.’’ 

After Bendy calmed down, the two of you went on your way towards the next level. You were basically wandering aimlessly now, not sure what you wanted from life anymore. On one hand you wanted to go back to your regular ol’ life with your job and friends, but then again you wanted to stay out here with Bendy. Maybe you could propose a compromise? Or take him home with you? Whatever to keep him in your life.

There was comfortable silence as the two of you wandered about. Like you, he seemed to be deep in thought. You had said you’d never leave him. Did you mean it? He pondered and he pondered until his head hurt. He couldn’t quite understand it. Why would you say such a thing and still want to wander up? He yearned to tell you about his feelings, but he feared you didn’t feel the same, as per usual. Why ruin a perfectly oiled friendship with some stupid lovey dovey feelings when he could just enjoy your company as a friend.

Meanwhile you were still pondering your own feelings for him, and how and when you’d tell him about your newly discovered feelings. You looked at him, a smile creeping on your face at the sight of him. His tail swished from side to side ever so slowly as he was thinking, his little wings randomly flapping around. You could almost hear the gears inside his head twist and turn as he was deep in thought.  
‘’Bendy?’’ you asked. He didn’t answer. Of course he wouldn’t, he probably was so deep in thought that he wouldn’t realize what happened around him. You decided to test this. You grabbed his tail and held the spade tipped thing in your hands. He reacted strongly, with a loud yelp and a face flushed a deep shade of grey.   
‘’H-hey! Don’t!’’ he yelped. ‘’That’s a sensitive spot!’’ he continued.  
‘’Had to get ya attention somehow.’’ you replied. ‘’What were ya thinking about anyways?’’ you asked. He shook his head.  
‘’I uh- nothing important, just something you don’t need to worry your lil’ head about just yet.’’ he replied. You raise an eyebrow at him.   
‘’Yet?’’ you asked.  
‘’Yeah, I’ll let’cha know when the time is right.’’ he said.  
‘’Suuuuuure.’’ you replied. Silence fell upon the two of you once more. It felt comfortable, to just walk by his side. You began humming the same old cartoon tune from earlier. Then the situation grew to a whole new level as you realised he tried to reach for your hand, finally succeeding and intertwining your fingers together. This was the moment, you thought. Not later, now sooner, but now. He was sending you clear signals, or at least what you thought to be clear signals of interest, and so, you opened your mouth.

‘’Hey Bendy?’’ you started. He turned his gaze to you.   
‘’Yeah, Sugar?’’ he replied.  
‘’I… I….’’ you tried to speak.  
‘’No rush Sugar. Take your time.’’ he said.

You stopped on your tracks and turned to face him, red flushed a deep shade of red and heart thumping in your chest like there was no tomorrow. The heat on your face could’ve probably boiled an egg or something.

You searched for words. Until you found the ones you wanted to say. You opened your mouth, closed it, and opened it again. Your eyes darted around the room, before settling back to his inky face. He was looking at you, waiting. His hand never left yours. He just squeezed your hand tight, reassuring you that you had all the time in the world to find the courage to speak up.

And after about 10 minutes of silence, and fiddling around with the hem of your hoodie, you finally spoke.

‘’I think I like you. Like, like like you.’’


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> he'd liked you all this time

‘’Yo-you what?’’ he stuttered.  
‘’I like you.’’ you said, not looking up at him. Fearing what he’d say, or how he’d react.  
‘’Oh, Sugar dearest…’’ he said.   
You didn’t quite register what was happening. He scooped you up in his arms and spun around, relishing in your words with a hearty laugh. He didn’t set you down for a very long time, holding you near his chest, just giggling like there was no tomorrow.   
‘’You… you like me! You like me!’’ he exclaimed, now setting you down. He placed his hands on your cheeks, making you look up at him.  
‘’Yeah. I do.’’ you said, your eyes drifting away. You’d look anywhere but him.  
‘’I can’t believe this! Oh my gosh!’’ he kept on exclaiming.  
‘’Yeah, yeah…’’ you said. You were waiting for him to calm down. He brought his face near yours, before speaking, in a hushed voice.  
‘’Well… I like you too.’’ he admitted. Your eyes snapped at him, the flush on your face growing stronger by the second.   
‘’Y-you do?’’ you asked, a single tear rolling down your cheek.  
‘’Yeah. Been liking for a while.’’ he whispered, swiping the tear from your cheek. It surprised him when you erupted into a waterfall of tears. You pushed your face into his chest, not caring if you’d get even worse ink stains from it. You giggled and you laughed.  
‘’I thought! I thought you didn’t! That you were just teasing me! Oh how oblivious I was!’’ you exclaimed in between giggles and sobs. He patted your back, before rubbing little circles around your higher back with his index finger.   
‘’You humans tend to be like that.’’ he said. ‘’Oblivious, I mean.’’ he added. He tightened his arms around you, and the two of you stayed like that for a few minutes.

When you pulled away from his chest, and he looked at you with a small grin. You didn’t realize just how much ink was on your face.  
‘’You… you got a little something on your face.’’ he said, before wiping your face with his gloved hand. It didn’t do much, but it got rid of the worst stains. Your eyes were red and puffy from the crying, but you didn’t care. Those were the most happiest tears you’d ever cried in your life, and it felt good. Oh, so good. Not only that, but knowing he felt the same. He liked you back!   
‘’So I take it that you really meant it when you said you’d never leave me.’’ he suddenly spoke. You let out a hum of agreement. You hadn’t known it back then, but now? It seemed like the obvious choice, to stay here with him. Sure, you’d miss your friends and work, but heck it! You were staying down here with the one being you liked more than anything else. But then you thought back to your earlier thoughts. Maybe you could pry him to come with you to your apartment? You definitely would at least try.

‘’I need to show you something.’’ he suddenly said. ‘’Follow me.’’ he added, and began leading you back to the direction you’d come from. He seemed eager to show you this something. He lead you down the hallway, to a small room with a metal door. The door was rusted from all the years. He opened it, the door letting out a loud creak in protest. He led you inside, until you were at another metal door.  
‘’What’s this?’’ you asked. He pressed something on the wall, and then you heard a loud ‘bling’ from the door.  
‘’It’s an emergency elevator!’’ he piped up. ‘’I’m sorry I didn’t show you earlier. I just really didn’t want you to leave….’’ he added, sheepishly. You patted him on the shoulder.  
‘’It’s fine. Really. I get’cha.’’ you said. ‘’Why are you showing this to me though?’’ you asked.  
He looked at you, then poked your stomach.  
‘’We don’t have an eternal supply of bacon soup. You’ll need to get food, and maybe shower and change clothes to something that doesn’t mind being stained with ink.’’ he explained. You pondered for a moment. He got a point there. But this was your chance to ask him.  
‘’Well, actually…. I was wondering if you’d like to come with me to my apartment? Leave this crummy old building behind?’’ you asked, your voice lowering at every word. He seemed to ponder for a moment.  
‘’I’d love to, actually.’’ he finally spoke. ‘’I haven’t seen the outside world in so many years.’’ he added. You beamed up at him. The elevator doors slid open and the two of you stepped in, finally ascending to the highest possible level. The level was still filled with ink, you were knee deep in it, but you pushed through in your stride. Upon reaching the exit, you grabbed the door knob, and looked at him.  
‘’You ready?’’ you asked. He nodded. And thus, you turned the knob, flinging the door open. You were greeted by the cold autumn air and darkness. It was night time. Perfect. Less chances for people to see him now. You bounced all the way to your car, and you were hoping it’d turn on after being unused for over a week. Bendy could barely fit inside your small car, he had to hunch over a bit. The drive home was pleasant as you listened to the radio. The instant you drove up the driveway to your apartment, you could feel yourself release some tension. You exited the car, home keys at hand and skipped over to the door. You flung it open, and let Bendy enter first, before closing the door behind yourself. 

You showed around the apartment, before deciding you really needed a hot shower. You told him to make himself at home while you were showering. The shower was the quickest one you’d ever take, as you were itching to get to sleep in your comfy king sized bed. With him. You added. You wouldn’t make him sleep on the small two seated couch you had. It just wasn’t right. When you exited the shower, you saw him sitting on the couch, immersed into one of your sketchbooks. You made your way to your bedroom to get on a nice and comfy set of pajamas, before moving to the kitchen to find something for supper. You were lucky enough, to not have your milk in the fridge spoiled, so you could have a bowl of cereal. You really needed something other than bacon soup to eat. With the cereal bowl at hand, you skittered over to the couch and sat next to him. You looked as he flipped through the pages ever so carefully as to not stain them. Every so often he’d ask you to explain what was happening in the sketches, and you’d oblige to tell. Then he landed on the page you forgot you had in the sketchbook. Oh no. He seemed to chuckle at your horrified reaction.   
‘’Didn’t think you loved me this much, Sugar.’’ he said, as he examined the page filled with self-indulgent sketches of you and him. You shook your head.  
‘’You shoulda picked up on that ever since the first dream I had with you in it.’’ you replied, now setting the empty cereal bowl down. ‘’Anyways, it’s bedtime. You can sleep in the bed with me.’’ you spoke.  
‘’I kinda took that for granted.’’ he replied. You playfully punched him in the shoulder, before sticking you tongue out at him.   
‘’C’mon.’’ you said, getting up from the couch. You took him by the hand and led him to your bedroom. You mentally thanked yourself for always having darkly colored bed sheets. You slipped into bed, on the side you always slept on and patted the spot next to you. He obliged, and slipped into bed with you. After he had done that, you pulled the covers over the two you. Yawning, you looked at him. You still couldn’t believe what had happened. After all of those adventures, you never thought you’d be bringing him home. How were you gonna explain this to your friends? Or Jordan? Oh, Jordan would be pleased to hear you were now dating. Were you dating? You decided to find out.  
‘’So, are we a thing now?’’ you asked.   
‘’I’d say so.’’ he replied. You smiled at him.  
‘’My coworker is so gonna pester me after he learns that.’’ you said, giggling a bit.  
‘’Speaking of which, how are ya gonna introduce, and explain, me to the people in your life?’’ he asked.  
‘’I have no idea.’’ you confessed. ‘’Maybe very slowly. One by one. Starting with Jordan.’’ you added, stifling out a yawn.  
‘’Can’t wait to meet them.’’ he said. ‘’But for now, get some rest. You’ve deserved it.’’ he added.  
‘’Same to you.’’ you replied.

You snuggled closer to him, face to face. You inched your face even closer, before finally planting a soft kiss on his forehead. He let out a small chuckle.  
‘’Is that all I’m gonna get?’’ he asked.  
‘’Maybe, maybe not.’’ you replied, resting your forehead on his. You felt comfortable like this, and so, the land of slumber called you in before him.

The next morning you woke up tightly in his embrace. His head resting on top of yours, arm wrapped around your waist and tail around your leg. He was still fast asleep, purring like a cat. You didn’t dare turn around to check your phone. Shit. You forgot to put it to charge for the night. It’d probably be filled with messages and calls from your friends, and especially Jordan. But that’d have to wait until Bendy woke up, as you didn’t dare disturb his peaceful slumber that he so much needed. 

‘’Mornin’.’’ you whispered.  
‘’Morning Sugar. You sleep well?’’ he asked.  
‘’Yeah, how about you?’’ you asked back.  
‘’The best darn sleep I’ve had in years.’’ he confessed. ‘’This bed is so comfy!’’ he added. You chuckled, before giving him a good mornings kiss on the forehead. He mimicked your actions, kissing you on the forehead as well.   
‘’I need to put my phone to charge. My friends probably are worried sick because of my sudden disappearance.’’ you said, shuffling around in bed before you managed to get up. You shuffled to your messenger bag and dug around for your phone, before placing it on your night desk to charge. You turned the phone on, and as soon as it had turned on, you got bombarded by messages and missed calls. Over 200 messages, and around 50 missed calls. Most of which were from Jordan. You decided to reply to him with a simple ‘I’m fine, will explain later’. You got instantly bombarded with another 20 messages from him, demanding you explain now. You ignored him, and turned your attention to the ink demon still laying in your bed. You dipped back under the covers, snuggling close to him. He instinctively wrapped his arms around you, tail swishing from side to side. He nuzzled his face into the crook of your neck. Not long until you fell back asleep.

You were awoken by the annoying sound of your phone ringing not soon after you had fallen asleep. You turned around in bed, snatched your phone and saw it was Jordan. Of course, he wouldn’t leave you alone until you gave him answers. Reluctantly you answered the phone, annoyance clear in your voice.  
‘’I told you I’d tell you later. I’m kinda busy right now.’’ you said.  
‘’You have been gone for over a week with no warnings and no you won’t tell me why!’’ he exclaimed. You cringed at the loudness of his voice.  
‘’Not now, Jordan.’’ you replied.  
‘’B-but!’’ Jordan began.  
‘’Hey, my little Sugar is busy right now.’’ Bendy finally spoke up, loud enough for Jordan to hear him speak. You could hear the long ‘oooooooooooo’ from Jordan. You ended the call before he could ask anymore questions. Soon enough, he was spamming you with more texts. You practically threw the phone at the end of the bed, after silencing it. You returned your attention to Bendy.   
‘’He’s so gonna pester me to let him meet you now.’’ you said.  
‘’I don’t mind that.’’ he said with a grin.  
‘’Bendy. You’re an ink demon, he’s gonna freak out.’’ you replied.  
‘’I don’t give a damn.’’ he said, now with an even wider grin. You just rolled your eyes and let out a sigh.  
‘’You ready to meet him today? Or are we moving a bit too fast?’’ you asked.  
‘’As ready as I’ll ever be.’’ Bendy replied.  
‘’Alrighty then!’’ you said, scooting out of bed and to the kitchen for some breakfast. You made a mental note of needing to go grocery shopping soon. How on Earth you’d do that without Bendy wanting to join you, was a mystery to you. Maybe you could disguise him or just ask him to stay home for a moment. It wouldn't take you long to get the necessities. Just some food supplies and snacks, maybe some toilet paper and a new shampoo. After making yourself a bowl of cereal and downing it, you made it back to the bedroom. Bendy was still laying in bed, as you sat on the edge of the bed and picked up your phone, reading all the texts you had received.

‘’Dude! You have a man?!’’  
‘’Answer me!’’  
‘’When can I meet him?’’  
‘’Is he hot?’’  
‘’Why aren’t you answering?’’  
‘’Pitt!’’  
‘’Dude!’’

And an onslaught of other questions. You shook your head, starting to type up a response.   
‘Jordan. You can meet him today, come over in an hour, okay?’ was the text you sent him.  
He responded immediately.   
‘Dude I am so coming over in an hour!’ was the response. 

The hour was over in a heartbeat. You were fiddling with the hem of your blue ink stained t-shirt. You hadn’t switched out of your pajamas yet. You and Bendy were sitting on the couch in the living room, watching Saturday morning cartoon reruns. When the doorbell rang, you practically jumped up and yelped. You then made your way to the door, and carefully pried it open. Jordan was standing there, in his pristine blue and black flannel shirt and black jeans. His light blue hair messed up by the wind. He instantly grabbed you into a tight hug, lifting you off the ground, not letting go for a solid minute. When he set you back down, he noticed the ink stains on your shirt and face.  
‘’Dude! What have you been up to? Why are you covered in these black stains?’’ he asked, dumbfounded.  
‘’Come on in and I’ll show ya.’’ you said, letting him to the corridor where he discarded his shoes. ‘’Now just promise not to freak out, okay? What you’re about to see is as real as anything.’’ you said, before you led him to the living room. Upon entering the living room, Jordan’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped open.  
‘T-t-t-t-t-tha-’’ he began stuttering. Bendy turned his gaze toward the two of you.   
‘’Jordan, meet my new boyfriend, Bendy. Bendy, meet my coworker Jordan.’’ you said, now sitting back onto the couch, next to Bendy.   
‘’Pleasure to meet ya, Sweet cheeks.’’ Bendy spoke. If it was even possible, the shock in Jordan’s eyes grew larger.  
‘’I-it-it s-sp-speaks.’’ Jordan stuttered.  
‘’He, actually.’’ you noted. ‘’Bendy’s a he.’’ 

You motioned for Jordan to sit at the lonely soft chair in the corner before he’d pass out from shock. And alas, not long before he sat down, he passed out. You weren’t sure whether to chuckle or not. This had gone just as you expected.

You had some explaining to do, you knew this.

Oh, it’d be fun when Jordan wakes up and gets over his initial shock.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we are nearing the end, which makes me sad
> 
> but i was thinking! if anyone wanted to see more of reader and Bendy, i could start a small request drabble series! just lemme know if you'd like that, and leave down requests if you have any!


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jordan freaks out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and here we are, at the last chapter of Learning to Love

It was a solid hour until Jordan showed signs of waking up. The instant he woke up, he began panicking and shouting.  
‘’I’m- dude- monster! I uh…’’ Jordan began.  
‘’Hey! He isn’t a monster.’’ you piped up.  
‘’I think I actually am.’’ Bendy noted.  
‘’That doesn’t give him the rights to call you one.’’ you remarked. ‘’Anyways, I think I have a lot of explaining to do, don’t I?’’ you added.  
Jordan nodded vigorously. ‘’You sure as hell do! Where were you? Why is this… this thing in your house? Who is he? Why does he speak? Wh-’’ Jordan began his arsenal of questions, and you had to stop him on his tracks.  
‘’One, I was at the old studio, trapped there. Two, he’s not a thing, he has feelings just like you and me. Three, I told you already, he’s Bendy. And four, why wouldn’t he speak?’’ you answered.   
‘’B-Bendy? That’s not Bendy.’’ Jordan noted.  
‘’Yes he is, if you look harder you can see it.’’ you remarked. Jordan squinted his eyes and stared at Bendy.   
‘’Ohhhh, I can see it now. The horns and the tail, and his signature grin. Sorry, I was a fool.’’ Jordan began. ‘’Wait. Did you call him your boyfriend?’’ he asked.  
You let out a huff. Of course he listened to that part.  
‘’Sugar sure did!’’ Bendy joined the conversation. Jordan’s head snapped at him.   
‘’Sugar? That’s what he calls you? And you’re okay with it? You never were okay with nicknames, Pitt.’’ Jordan spoke, putting pressure on the last word. You shook your head at his antics.   
‘’Yeah, I’m fine with it. So what?’’ you asked.  
Jordan sat there silently, looking from you to Bendy and back. He seemed to be deep in thought as he rubbed his chin.  
‘’Sooooo, how does it feel to date your childhood crush?’’ he suddenly piped up. You groaned at that, before chuckling and scooting closer to Bendy, until your head rested on his shoulder. Bendy’s arm wrapped around your shoulder, protectively.  
‘’I dunno, it feels amazing, but surreal. Very surreal.’’ you noted.   
‘’Well, I mean, cartoons coming to life is surreal.’’ Jordan noted back. You wanted to chug something at Jordan, but restrained yourself. He asked a few more questions, which you answered as well as you could. Bendy would occasionally pipe in with a snarky remark or a joke, causing you to giggle like a mad man. Jordan would just scoff at most of them.   
Eventually it came time for Jordan to leave, as you really needed to get those groceries. 

‘’Hey Bendy, do you think you can entertain yourself for half an hour? I really need to go pick up groceries, since almost everything in the fridge is spoiled.’’ you stated. Bendy tapped his chin.  
‘’I don’t know, can I?’’ he replied.  
‘’You could watch a movie. I have quite the collection of animated movies. Maybe you’d like to see how animation has changed during the years?’’ you asked. He seemed to beam at the idea, so you showed him your vast collection of animated movies. You had everything from old school Disney to modern Disney and everything in between.   
‘’Oh what’s that one?’’ he asked, pointing to one of them. You picked out the one he pointed at, chuckling at his choice.  
‘’It’s Zootopia. It’s a great movie.’’ you said. ‘’You wanna watch it?’’ you asked. He nodded, very aggressively, and you chuckled a bit more.  
‘Okay, get comfy, I’ll take care of the rest.’’ you said, making your way to the DVD player. You set everything up for him, before making your way to the corridor, putting on your coat and sneakers. You grabbed your keys, and made to exit the house.  
‘’I’ll be back shortly!’’ you piped before opening the door and once more entering the cold autumn air.

Grocery shopping went well, except for the part where your car refused to at first start up from the parking lot of the store. You had to try a couple of times before it finally started up. The drive home was a wild ride, getting stuck in traffic and all that jazz. Once you drove up the driveway to your apartment, you cheered internally for finally being back home. You grabbed the groceries and made it inside.   
Upon entering the living room, you saw Bendy practically glued to the TV screen. He seemed to be intrigued by the movie, and you beamed up. You’d have to have a movie marathon with him someday. But for now, you had to place the groceries away. You entered the kitchen, placing everything where they belonged before starting to prepare lunch. You had decided that today would be mac’n’cheese with bacon day, reminiscing on the bacon soup you had eaten back at the old studio. You heard the little chatter of the movie in the background, and the occasional gasps and squeals of joy from Bendy. You almost caused your pasta water to boil over from paying too much attention to what was happening in the living room. With a loud yelp, you pulled the pot of the stove. It was surprising how he didn’t react to it at all. Upon finishing your work in the kitchen, you made it to the living room and couch with a bowl of mac’n’cheese at hand. The movie was just about to end as you sat down. You could visibly see him pouting at the ending credits, and you chuckled. Man, he sure caused you to chuckle and giggle a lot.  
‘’You know, we could have a movie marathon if you want to. I bought some snacks, so it’d be the perfect chance.’’ you said,as he turned around to you. He nodded once again very aggressively, Oh, his excitement was so childlike and it brought a smile to your face.  
‘’Cool beans! I’ll just finish lunch first.’’ you said, shoving a forkful of pasta to your mouth. You finished the food rather quickly, wanting to get to the movie marathon as soon as possible.

You let him pick out a couple of movies he wanted to see, and thus began your movie marathon with all three ‘How to train your dragons’ movies. But before you could begin, you hobbled over to the kitchen to pick up the snacks you'd bought. Some of your favorite chips and some chocolate. You sat down on the couch, with a blanket wrapped around your shoulders. You instinctively scooted closer to him and wrapped him inside the blanket with you. He leaned closer, until his head rested on top of yours, while your head rested on his shoulder. You stayed in this comfortable position until the end of the first movie, when you had to get up and switch out the movies. You sat back down on the couch, as close to him as possible. You loved the warmth he radiated from his body. You just wanted to stay like this forever, in his close proximity. Then you realized there was something that you wanted to do.  
‘’Hey Bendy?’’ you began, turning your gaze at him.  
‘’Yeah?’’ he asked, now turning his head to look at you.  
‘’Can… can I…’’ you mumbled, looking at his lips. He seemed to notice this, as he leaned forward and almost close the gap between the two of you.  
‘’Why yes, yes you absolutely can.’’ he said, waiting for you to make a move. You smiled before closing the gap between the two of you. Surprisingly enough, his lips felt so soft to the touch. And warm, oh so warm. Since this was your first kiss, neither asked for entrance just yet. You parted when you felt the need to breathe once more. You let your forehead rest on his, before leaving small pecks all around his lower jaw. He let out a hearty chuckle, before wrapping his arms around your waist and pulling you in his lap. You positioned yourself so that you were sitting comfortably in his lap before hitting play on the next movie. He rested his head on top of yours, a loud purring reverberating through his body through the movie, his little tail swishing around slowly. It wasn’t until the third movie was halfway through that you began yawning in his warm embrace, sleep beckoning you over to the land of slumber. Bendy finished watching the movie before carefully turning the TV off, as to not get ink on your remote, and then carefully got up with you in his arms and walked over to the bedroom. He set you on your side of the bed, before settling into bed with you and pulling the covers over the two of you. A little nap wouldn’t hurt anyone, and neither of you had slept properly during the time at the old studio.

You instinctively in your sleep crawled close to him, snuggling up to his chest. He wrapped his arm around your waist, before nuzzling his head into the pillow. He began purring loudly, keeping you close. Little did he know, that his purring reverberating through his chest helped you to sleep better, and the nightmare that was about to enter your head disappeared as fast as it had tried to take over your peaceful slumber.

Oh, he’d cherish these little things for the rest of his inky little life. He may have been the monster to scare you and not care about feelings, but all in all, ever since the beginning you had piqued his interest and look where it got him. Out of that old crummy, abandoned studio where he was bored all the time, and to a life filled with love and someone to care about. These happy thoughts riddled his mind as he felt sleep beckon himself to the land of slumber. His little eyes under the inky facade fluttered shut, and soon he was asleep. With the love of his life in his arms. 

He had learned to care.

He had learned to love. 

And that’s all that mattered to him right now. 

Learning to Love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and remember, im open to suggestions and requests for more reader x Bendy fics! maybe we can get some more fluff out of this story in the shape of short drabbles and stuff


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